Beneath All the Hate and Despair
by MakenshiCrona
Summary: When Kid finds out Crona is a new student at Shibusen, there's only hate and rage, for Crona there's sadness and confusion. Crona tries to gain his trust, but what happens when Medusa saunters in? Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: What had happened.

Crona sat on the cold stone floor in the corner of her new "room" rather than lie down on the rough mattress of the bed on the opposite side of her. Tightening her legs to her chest, she wondered how she ended up here in this position, in this room, in this _building_.

A sigh escaped her lips, echoing against the walls, and coming back to her ears. Crona thought of yesterday. She was amazed at how much could change in the small hours of the day. In the shortest time, an hour or so Crona thought, she and Maka had become friends, the Kishin revived, Medusa was defeated, and the world was in danger of being engulfed by madness. Now here she was, in one of the stone dungeon cells at Shibusen.

Crona remembered how startled she was, in the now ruins of Shibusen, when she heard footsteps behind her after Maka and Soul left her to fend for herself against the new chibi Ragnarok. Ragnarok, as always, had ignored her pleads and ruled over her newfound bravery. Long story short, their quarrel lasted for quite a while.

When Ragnarok obviously started winning against her, Crona finally gave up on fighting. Seeing that bullying and uncaring Crona was not fun, Ragnarok went back into her spine. Crona had sighed and sat on the rubble filled floor, waiting for some reason she didn't know why.

Then she heard the faint sound of footsteps behind her, she had gasped and spun around to the nearing noise. There was a man a few meters away from her, each footstep taken in long strides, his sneakers squeaking slightly on the floor. He had blue skin, he seemed to be muscular, and was tall. On his arms, there were black tattoos of swirls and the character of Death on both of his shoulders. He wore a headband on his forehead, skimming right above his searching eyes. The man had looked around and his gaze had finally rested on Crona, and went toward her as if he'd found something he was looking for.

When he appeared in front of her, he asked, "You the Demon Sword?"

Crona had nodded hesitantly; she immediately felt a deep fear toward the blue man. After giving him the answer he apparently was hoping for, he nodded and signaled for her to follow him.

"Come on," he told her.

She had felt unsure. Medusa had always told her to never trust anyone except for her, and Ragnarok. To never trust anyone else, for anything they told you would be complete lies. Though, it's not like she trusted them much, and they had lied to her almost every waking second of the day, every day of her life.

Seeing her hesitation, the strange scary man bent down to her level on the floor.

"Don't worry," he said in his deep voice, "We're not going to hurt you."

Though his words were supposed to be comforting, the way the man frightened Crona ruined the effect, also the fact that she didn't know who "we" was, and that scared her. But she did relax her ice like state and slowly rose from the ground. Crona nodded and agreed to follow him.

Crona stayed a good meter away from the blue man as she walked behind him. Afraid of the lingering dead silence between her and the scary man, she decided to ask Ragnarok a question through her thoughts.

'Were do you think he's taking us?' she asked.

'I dunno, maybe he's taking us to a torture chamber to kill us.' Ragnarok responded blandly.

'Ragnarok! Don't say that, it'll only make me paranoid!' Crona whined.

'And I'll bet he'll chain you to the wall and starve you. Then he'll slowly rip your limbs off, one by one.' Ragnarok described, teasing her now.

'Stop it, Ragnarok that's not nice!' she begged, tears forming at the edges of her eyes.

'Oooh, and I'll bet he'd want to watch you cry and plead, too. And as you scream and he rips you apart, he'll order you to apologize for killing all those innocent people and hurting the students here at Shibusen. Then he'll bring the she-pig Maka and she'll look at you with such hatred for hurting that jerky partner of hers.' Ragnarok cackled.

Imagining such horrid thoughts and Maka's glare filled with hatred pierced a feeling so horrible through Crona's chest. The pain of such made her want to burst to tears and rip apart the Earth. Though, instead of doing so, Crona suddenly got very angry and growled out loud in a deadly low whisper, "I said stop it. Or I'll rip _you_ apart."

The blue man seemed to have heard her low dark threat, and turned toward her with an expression that read 'scared and confused' since he apparently thought the threat was for him. Crona avoided his gaze and dropped her eyes to the dusty floor beneath her.

As the man led her to wherever they were going, Crona saw Shibusen differently than just the enemies' territory. She tried to see past all the damage and see the true beauty of the designs in the school. Crona wondered what color the walls were painted, but all of them were covered in dust. She neared the wall to her right and raised her hand to wipe the grime away to reveal the color beneath. From the corner of her eye, she saw the scary blue man stiffen and slightly turn to her. At first she thought he was going to yell at her to not touch anything, so she yanked her hand away from the air back to her side.

"You may want to cover your eyes." He said instead of the yells she expected.

Crona wondered what he was talking about, but soon realized what he meant. Her mother was lying on the ground, only the top half of her body present. There was blood splattered across her face, the witch's eyes were blank and empty, but an evil grin was spread across her cheeks. Crona's breath hitched and tried to avert her gaze as quickly as she could to get the scene to disappear from her sight, but the image was burned into her mind.

When she and the blue man had to pass the laying remnants of the infamous Medusa, Crona shut her eyes with a force that brought pain. After they passed the macabre scene, the only sights and sounds left were that of the blue man's back and the soft _thud_s of their footsteps. After awhile, Crona worked up the courage to ask the man a question.

"W-where are w-we going?" she asked in an almost inaudible whisper.

"We're going to Shinigami-sama's Death Room." He answered her.

Crona froze so suddenly the man stopped and gave her a questioning look.

Crona barely heard Ragnarok's soft thought of, 'We're goners.'

The blue man stared at her intently, trying to figure out what was wrong. Suddenly he seemed to realize the reason for her tension.

"Shinigami-sama isn't going to hurt you, he just wishes to speak with you." He explained trying to reassure her.

Crona just nodded and followed the blue man meekly. Ragnarok was tense inside of her, her blood felt like ice.

'What do you suppose we do?' Crona thought toward Ragnarok.

'I don't know. I think we're done for. You know what Medusa's told us about him.' Ragnarok replied.

Crona thought back to all those comments her mother had told her about Shinigami. None of them were very pleasant, but as she thought about it, maybe they were lies. It wouldn't be very surprising if they'd been lies, Medusa had lied to her nearly her whole life. Though as she and the strange man neared two grand doors with skulls on each of the handles, it was obvious this was Shinigami's Death Room, Crona couldn't help considering that all those comments were possibly true.

The man raised one of his blue hands and knocked on the door lightly, "Shinigami-sama? May I come in?"

"Sid-sensei? Yes, you may come in." the grim voice was muffled by the closed door.

'Sid?' Crona thought, 'That must be his name.'

The blue man, who was apparently named Sid, grabbed one of the brass handles of the left door and tugged. The thick door creaked as it opened, revealing the bright room. Crona took note that it opened inwards, and peered in, taking the blue sky-like ceiling into memory. A tall dark figure had its back facing them, a large mirror in front of it. The mirror seemed to be showing what the rest of Death City was doing. Crona and Sid walked up a path to the center of the room. The long walkway had several guillotines hovering above them. Crona stared at them, hoping with all her might they would not come down to slice her apart. The dark figure spoke to Sid.

"Do you have the Demon Blade?' it asked.

"Yes, I have the kid right here, Shinigami-sama." Sid replied.

The black man turned to them. When he turned to them, Crona saw that his cloak was torn and half of his mask was blown off. The somber emotion of grief seemed to roll off of him.

'So this is Shinigami…' Crona thought. Crona felt no fear toward him, just sadness.

Shinigami brightened at the sight of her, "Ah, hello, child!" his voice changed from one of sadness and grief to a playful one, "I must say that when Maka and her weapon came back chronically injured, I imagined a much more threatening and intimidating figure than the meek and timid one before me."

Crona cringed at the memory, her blade cutting through the skin of her newfound friend's weapon. Crona's heart clenched with guilt. Though, a question ran through her mind.

'Why is Shinigami-sama being so nice to me?' Crona thought.

'Maybe 'cause he wants to gain your trust so he can get you alone and eat you!' Ragnarok replied.

'Ragnarok! Shut. Up. Shinigami-sama is not going to… eat me.' Crona objected.

Though now as she looked at Shinigami's looming figure, she was starting to get unpleasant thoughts.

'Who knows?' Ragnarok teased, 'Maybe he likes skinny meat.'

'Ragnarok. Stuff it.'

'Ha, ha, ha, ha!'

Crona's eye twitched in irritation. Once she was in a private location she would be able to yell at Ragnarok properly. Shinigami noticed the timid child before him had obvious agitation, and wondered what it was that was making the child uncomfortable.

He tilted his head questioningly, but the meant to be playful gesture, lost its effect due to half of his mask missing.

"Does something seem to be bothering you, child?" Shinigami asked.

Crona jumped; startled that he asked her such a question. She had never had anyone care if anything bothered her or not. Usually if her mother was curious enough to know what was wrong, she said, '_What's wrong with you now, you worthless child?_'

Crona stuttered out her words, "I-it's n-nothing, Shinigami-sama."

"Hmm, well then! Shall I discuss some matters with you?" he asked her.

"U-umm, hai." Crona agreed.

"Okay, then!" Shinigami said cheerily, "Sid, could you leave us so we can talk over some things."

"Hai, Shinigami-sama!" Sid responded.

Crona watched Sid leave the room, shutting the door behind him with a low _thud_. She felt the Shinigami's gaze on her. She turned back to him, keeping her eyes on the ground, shuffling her feet.

"Don't worry, child." Shinigami told her, "I will not harm you. Though you _are_ an offspring of a witch, I will not act violently toward an innocent soul led down the wrong path."

Crona lifted her eyes from the polished floor and glanced at the shinigami, "I didn't want to be bad…" she whispered.

"And I'm glad that you've held on so strongly to not give in to the madness that has surrounded us! With that willpower, strength, and innocence of soul, I wish for you to become a member of my school!"

Crona froze in shock, "You mean, b-become a student at Sh-shibusen?"

"Hai! I would love to see you go down the path of good, to readjust your way of life!" Shinigami cheered.

Crona smiled meekly, "I-i think I would like being here at Shibusen."

"Ah, that would be wonderful!" Shinigami sang, then he turned sullen, "Though, that does mean you will have to give up all of your human souls."

Crona nodded in understanding, "Hai, Shinigami-sama."

At that moment, Crona felt the familiar sensation of Ragnarok coming out of her back though now in his smaller form.

"What do you mean give up the souls!?" Ragnarok shouted, "There's no way am I going to give them up! Then I'd be just as worthless as this little idiot! And there's no way I'm gonna-"

"You're going to give them up." Crona stated sternly.

"Who said you were boss!?" Ragnarok yelled steamily.

Shinigami stared at the strange creature atop the pink haired child's head. Apparently this was the Demon Sword Ragnarok. Though, when Maka and his son had described him, he sounded a lot bigger and scarier, Shinigami thought the little thing was quite adorable.

"Aww, little cute thing, the technician decides," Shinigami informed him, patting the little black blob on the head.

Ragnarok was angered by this, by both the remark and the friendly action, but took no action.

"So, umm, h-how do you take the human souls?" Crona asked, curious and wary.

Shinigami looked at her, "It's quite simple actually. Could you have Ragnarok come out in his weapon form please?"

Crona nodded, ignoring the fact hat she hadn't an idea of how he knew Ragnarok's name, and immediately felt the familiar weight of the slender sword in her hand. Shinigami held his hand out, motioning for her to give him the weapon. Confused, Crona put the blade in Shinigami's outstretched hand. She felt odd having Ragnarok away from her, like a reminder that they originally were never supposed to be attached to each other.

Shinigami held the sword away from him and shook violently. Several floating blue human souls appeared, scattering the area around them. As the shinigami shook Ragnarok (who felt pissed off and nauseous at the time), more souls came. Crona was concerned for Ragnarok; he was definitely not going to be happy. After Shinigami stopped shaking the sword in his hand, five red kishin egg souls stood out from all the blue.

With a satisfied look, Shinigami handed the sword, and the five kishin souls, back to Crona. Ragnarok was noticeably thinner, and after quickly swallowing the red souls, he immediately vanished inside of Crona. She wobbled and tried to find her balance because she instantly felt Ragnarok's dizziness.

"See?" Shinigami started, "That was quite simple, wasn't it?"

"Umm, yeah." Crona replied.

"Well then, I'll rid of these later!" Shinigami sang motioning toward the floating blue orbs, "Now that the human souls have been taken away, you are now compatible to Shibusen!"

Two deep blue eyes filled with wonder gazed up at him, "R-really?" there was a note of skepticism in the small voice.

"Yes! All you need to do is fill out the information sheet. You already have a weapon, so we don't have to worry any there." Shinigami explained.

Crona watched as Shinigami walked over behind the mirror and pulled out a trunk. It was black with a lock in the shape of Shinigami's mask. Taking a key from the inside of his cloak, he unlocked the trunk and swung the top open. After some ruffling, he found what he was looking for and took out some crisp sheets of paper, and handed them to Crona. While he shut the lid, re-locked it, and pushed the trunk back behind the mirror, Crona stared down at the pages of paper in her hands and read the words.

The information sheet had all the obvious spaces on them. Name, Parents'/Guardians' names (she twitched at this one), address…

Shinigami watched the Demon Sword's expression as it gazed at the words on the paper. First there was a glint of hope in the depressed face. Then he saw the child twitch (the reason for that he did not know), and last, the expression changed into one of painful sadness.

"U-umm, Shinigami-sama?" the small voice asked softly.

"Yes, dear child?" he responded.

"I-i have no where to live, s-so I can't fill in the address blank." the child stuttered timidly.

'Ah,' Shinigami thought, 'I'll have to change that fact.'

"Let's fix that, shall we!?" he said happily.

Crona nodded a small nod and Shinigami turned to his mirror. He wrote some numbers on the glass with his finger and the mirror glowed, sending out a series of ripples. Suddenly, Crona saw that Sid appeared in the mirror, looking at Shinigami with a professional look on his face.

"Hai, Shinigami-sama?" Sid's deep voice answered.

"I need you to come here, please. I want you to escort Crona somewhere." Shinigami explained to him.

"I'll be right there!" Sid exclaimed, saluting before disappearing from sight.

Shinigami turned back to pink haired technician; the child was staring at the mirror, curiosity gleaming in the sad blue eyes. The Demon Sword noticed him staring and quickly averted its eyes and blushed.

"Are you curious about something?" Shinigami questioning.

The child jumped, startled, and looked up at him.

"Huh? Oh, u-um, h-how does that mirror work? I mean, how do the other people answer you?" it asked, the curious light in its eyes returning.

"Ah. Every mirror in Death City has a spell on it that allows me to be able to communicate with them, and them to me. It's quite convenient when you need to reach someone and they have a pocket mirror with them. " Shinigami explained.

Crona nodded silently, returning to watching her feet. She felt awkward in this silence, but Shinigami started to hum a happy tune, turning his back to her, swaying with his little song. Crona lifted her eyes, watching him. She knew that he was only putting on this happy façade as to not frighten her. She guessed he probably did this to lots of others, putting on a happy cover over his true feelings and worries. Because Crona was deep in her thoughts, trying to figure out the shinigami, Crona let out a small gasp when the soft knock on the door broke the silence.

"You can come in Sid." Shinigami said calmly.

The blue man stepped into the room and walked the path up to them, Crona wondered how he didn't worry about the sharp heavy metal blades above him, "Where is it that you wanted me to take her, sir?" Sid asked, stopping in front of Shinigami.

"Take her to Cell Room #27, please. That will be her new home, curtsey of Shibusen!" he responded.

Sid simply nodded while Crona stood frozen in shock, mouth open. She was going to have a new home? Was Shinigami really truly being that nice to her?

'Shinigami-sama is very giving.' Crona thought to Ragnarok.

'Yeah, but he said _cell room_. Suppose he's going to keep you prisoner for all the bad things you've done?' he responded.

'No, I don't think he's like that.' Crona disagreed.

'Believe what you want to believe, moron.' was his reply.

Shinigami brought her out of her thoughts, "Wait at the door for Sid, please. He will be there momentarily."

Crona felt that she should tell him her name since he didn't know it, but Ragnarok was urging her to leave. So she nodded and walked the path to the door, watching the guillotines above her warily.

Shinigami and Sid watched the poor child's thin figure until it was successfully out of earshot.

Shinigami turned to Sid, but he interrupted what Shinigami was about to say, "I'm sorry to talk before you, sir, but why are you giving the Demon Blade a home here at Shibusen?"

"Why not? I'm sure it wants a home." Shinigami replied.

"Yes, sir, though couldn't you just let it live with Maka since it seemed to have made good friend with her." Sid asked.

"Maka, I'm sure, would love to take the Demon Sword in, but I think that we should let her have a break. Maka seems very busy at these times, what with Asura reviving and needing to fix the damages." Shinigami stated, trying to make a point, "Besides, I would think that the Demon Sword is too timid to feel comfortable around people, so I'm giving it a room that's quite private. You'd want the same thing if you were that poor child. It needs comfort and kindness."

"True," Sid agreed, "but why Cell 27? All of them are empty, so why did you give it that specific one?"

Shinigami let his head hang, avoiding Sid's eyes, almost as if he was ashamed.

"Though I trust the Demon Sword in the slightest, it need to keep an eye on it." Shinigami's voice turned grim, "So the reason I want it to be in Cell Room #27, well, that's because…" he let out a rueful and harsh sigh, "It's the only one with a mirror."

"Crona, why are we standing here waiting for the stupid blue dude? I don't want to be here!" Ragnarok whined.

Crona ignored Ragnarok's attempts to persuade her to leave, "I don't want to be here any more than you Ragnarok."

"Yeah, but I want to _leeeeaave_!" he groaned.

Crona sighed and brought her hand up to pat him on the head. Ragnarok swatted her away, "You know I don't like that," he growled.

"I know, but we have to wait for Sid-san, Shinigami-sama said." Crona persuaded.

"Well their taking forever." Ragnarok huffed.

Crona looked over to the two men. She couldn't hear what they were saying; they probably didn't want her to either. She saw Sid start to shift in their direction, so Crona thought that they must have been close to through.

"Just wait a little longer, I think I see them finishing up their conversation." Crona replied.

"Sid, when you get the Demon Sword to the room, give it this." Shinigami informed slipping Sid a small object.

Sid looked down at the thing in his hand, "A pen?"

"To fill out the information sheets for Shibusen of course!" Shinigami told Sid cheerily.

Sid looked at the shinigami suspiciously, skepticism clear on his face. Shinigami sensed that Sid did not believe him. So he quietly whispered to Sid, so that the Demon Sword would have no chance of hearing.

"I'll explain when you return."

Sid nodded his head and went to go accompany the Demon Blade, who seemed to be in an argument with the weird black creature that was its weapon. At the sight of the blue man, Crona fell silent and obediently trailed behind him as they walked out of the room.

Crona let her eyes take in the beauty of the school. There were a few windows at the ends of some halls; the view would have been beautiful if it wasn't looking out on the red sky and insanity engulfing Death City. So Crona kept her attention from the windows. She gazed into some of the tidy empty classrooms and wondered which one she would be in if she were accepted into the school. The only time Crona wasn't staring at everything was when they had to walk down a flight of stairs, which they had to do several times.

Suddenly, Sid cleared his throat and Crona set all of her attention back to him. Crona realized, when her chest clenched up, that she had a greater fear of Sid than she thought. Apparently when they were heading to meet Shinigami, she was so nervous and terrified, it masked over her true fear toward the blue man before her.

Sid finally spoke, "I'm not going to try small talk, that's not the type of man I was, but I _will_ inform you some so that you're not lost."

He turned to peek at her. She nodded his approval, so he turned back around and went on, "I know this isn't necessary, but I do feel you should probably know. The reason I'm blue is because I'm a zombie." (This only increased Crona's fear.) "Anyways, you will be attending weekly classes because… well… everyone else will. With all the damage created, we can't have daily classes for a while, the staff will be busy trying to repair Death City with most of their time."

Sid pointed to a room to the left of them, "This will be your new classroom in a few days. Professor Stein teaches that class, so you'd better hope you have a strong stomach."

Class Crescent Moon. Crona put the name and location into memory. As they walked down more halls and down more stairs, Sid explained about what she would be doing at the school.

"On the same hall as your classroom, there is a bulletin board filled with missions." Though they were walking down flight of stairs now, it didn't slow down Sid. "When you take a mission, you go to the location it tells you, and take the Kishin egg's soul." He explained.

Crona nodded, listening to what Sid was saying, trying to remember it all. Because she was concentrating on Sid's words, she wasn't paying attention to where her feet were going on the stairs. Her foot slipped and she tripped a couple stairs. Catching herself on the metal rail, she steadied her breathing. Suddenly, she was in a hall very different from the others, the walls and floor were all stone, and it was only lit by the torches on each of the sides of the walls. Crona followed Sid fearfully, wondering what dark evil place she was being sent to.

Sid stopped in front of a steel metal door and turned to her, opening it wide and gestured inside. Crona peered inside the room. A window showed the deep red sky above, and there was actually furniture instead of the usual empty space that consisted of her room back with Medusa. A bed was pressed up against he wall; with blankets and pillows, there was a dresser on the opposite wall; which was near a sink with a small mirror above it. Crona tried not to think of what Shinigami had said about all the mirrors.

"I know it's not much," Sid said from behind her, "but it's better than nothing. Anyway, I'll leave."

Crona turned to him as he was about to walk out he door.

"Oh, wait!" he exclaimed.

Taking a few steps to Crona with his long strides, he pulled something out of his pocket, and handed it to her.

"Here you go." He said.

Crona gazed at the black pen in her palm. Looking up, she seemed to ask her question with her expression.

"To fill out the information sheet." Sid explained.

Crona nodded without saying a word and watched Sid leave the room. When he was gone, she ignored the bed and sat in the corner. She put the papers on her lap; they were slightly crumpled from clenching them tightly the whole time she and Sid were walking, and raised the black pen to the first blank.

Sid walked the hall that led down to Shinigami's Death Room. Upon reaching the door, he lifted his hand to knock on the door lightly with his knuckles.

"Come in," Shinigami said from behind the closed door.

Sid entered, walking down the path of guillotines to reach the shinigami. Upon reaching him, Sid saw that to the side of Shinigami, there was a floor speaker the size of an individual school desk. Taped to the side of the speaker was something that looked like a thermometer. Shinigami looked at Sid and Sid stared up into the mask that hid a face beneath it.

"What are those things by you and the pen for?" Sid questioned very straight forward.

Shinigami sighed, "My, Sid. Mustn't need to be so serious."

Sid merely stood silently, "I just want to know what thing is now in possession of that kid. There could be a bomb in it, for all I know, and those can be the devices to set it off." Sid said pointing to the objects beside Shinigami.

"I'd never do anything to such a poor soul!" Shinigami objected, "The pen is a microphone and censor."

Sid set his eyes to the objects, "Those are the things that monitor them?"

"Hai," Shinigami responded, "With that pen we can listen with this speaker here, and the censor will be able to see how far into insanity the child is using the meter.

"The kid has been through a lot, I would think that the insanity level would be high even with out the Kishin reviving." Sid said, "We probably need to be careful with it, we probably need to help it as well."

"I want to see if spending time with Maka and her friends will help the child. I also need to be wary, I'm not sure whether it has any plans." Shinigami explained.

"So we need to keep an eye on it either way is basically what you're saying." Sid guessed.

"Yes, that child will be watched over carefully. With both positive and negative intentions."

Name: Crona Makenshi Gorgon. Parents'/Guardians' names: Medusa Gorgon. Address: Shibusen Cell Room #27.

Crona filled in the blanks on the information sheet she had to fill out. Some of them she wondered what to put like in the contacts list and phone number, but she answered most of the questions quite easily. Gender: Female. Meister or Weapon: Meister. In the medical records, some of the blanks were easy. Crona had all her shots, Medusa played as a nurse after all. Though, there was one blank that made her hesitate.

Blood Type.

Crona blinked and stared, wondering what she should do. She didn't know what her blood type was; it wasn't regular blood that's for sure. Putting the pen to her lips, she thought of what to put. After some silence in thought, Crona finally gave up and scrawled the only thing she could think of to put in the blank.

Blood Type: Ragnarok

Other than that one hesitance, the others were simple to fill in. Upon reaching the last blank to be filled in, Crona read the sentence with care.

I, (signature), agree to stay loyal to Shinigami-sama, and will take the souls of kishin eggs and witches only, no other.

Crona wrote her name in the large space, putting in each letter neatly, signing with her true loyalty into the promise. Crona relaxed the pencil in her hand, the papers were filled, she hoped that she would be able to go to the school with Maka and try to love o a normal life, but she knew that was a hard wish to fulfill. Crona looked up at the window and stared at the sky. There was no moon, which made it hard to tell whether it was night or not, but Crona knew it was well into the late night. Crona decided that she should go to sleep, so she set the pen and papers on her new dresser (well, new to her), and curled up into a ball. Crona was curious why Ragnarok hadn't said a word since they were at Shinigami's "office". She tried to feel what was wrong with him through her thoughts. Crona realized immediately that he was exhausted because he did not insult her for worrying too much when checking in on him.

For the first time, Crona felt pity for her small partner. She knew that Ragnarok didn't want to be trapped inside of her as black blood. Crona wondered how Ragnarok was before he was melted down; she knew he was once a regular weapon before. Sadly, she wished Ragnarok could have his past life back, and be able to be free to make his own decisions. Though he did bully and harass her, he usually did what she said. Especially while in battle he listened loyally, fought to keep her alive, and shouted motivations while fighting. He always kept her hope alive, saying that she could defeat anyone who crossed her; he believed in her, the only time he doubted and bullied her in battle was when she was in danger of dieing.

Sighing, Crona buried her head in her arms and closed her eyes. Worn out and breathing deeply, she tried to lull herself to sleep, wishing that she would wake up to a better tomorrow, trying not to think about what had happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, this is my first Fan Fiction, so if I do anything wrong or you have advice, pleeeeaaase tell me. And I'd really appreciate it if you put in a review, too! =] **

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Chapter 2:

More Than Happy Friends and One Less Than Friendly

Crona lifted her head from her arms. Opening her eyes, the blurry vision settled into focus. Unrecognizing the wall in front of her she panicked. She looked at the unfamiliar room she was in. She put her palm on the cold stone beneath her, readying herself to stand.

"Wha-?" she started, then all the memories of yesterday pounded hard against her.

'Oh yeah,' she though as she realized where she was, 'I'm in Shibusen.'

Crona wasn't used to being able to see when she woke up. She was used to waking in the pitch darkness inside the room Medusa locked her in before everything happened to change her life so drastically. Crona almost missed the familiar lifestyle she had, yes she was completely miserable then, but at least everything made sense. She knew everything she had to do to keep Medusa from scolding her, now she hadn't a clue how to interact with anyone.

Crona curled back into her tight ball, sighing. The faint dark light streaming in from the window was the same dull red color from before, which made it hard to tell whether it was morning or still night. Well that didn't matter, it's not like Medusa ever told her what time of day it was whenever she woke up before.

Crona wondered what she should do. Her eyes landed on the papers on her desk. A new thought entered her mind, what should she do with the information sheets? Did she have to go turn them in to Shinigami? Well, she didn't think she was to just leave her room, knock on Shinigami's door, and give them to him. Maybe she was supposed to, she couldn't, she didn't know how to even get to his Death Room.

Seeing that she could do nothing about her problem, she rose from the cold stone floor, and paced around her the room. Nearing the bed, Crona placed a hand on the mattress, feeling that it actually sunk down a bit when she applied pressure to it. Surprised that there was at least that much cushion in the thin mattress, Crona sat down, thinking that the bed was quite soft, and studied her new home closely, looking at all the details.

Crona inspected corner to corner from her place on the bed. Trying to memorize where each crack was, each loose stone, counting how many bugs ran across the room. Noticing the mirror for the second time, she became wary, trying to avoid it, but failed. Finally, she grabbed the thin blanket from under her and drug it across the room. Leaning over the sink, Crona neatly hung the blanket over her reflection in the mirror, and she hoped that if she ever looked at this mirror again, it'd be her own reflection looking back.

After completing this, Crona was at square again having nothing to do. She wished there was something to distract her from where she was and keep her mind from all the disturbing facts and things about yesterday. They say be careful for what you wish for, because right then she felt the stirring in her spine. Ragnarok dragged himself from her spine onto her head, plopping down. His tiny arms and sphere shaped hands hanging in Crona's face along with her bangs.

"I'm _huuunngry_." he whined.

Crona inhaled deeply and let the breath out, "Well there isn't any food in here, and I don't think I'm allowed to leave the room." She replied.

"Gupi-pi…"

"Stop whining, we've gone days without food before." Crona stated.

Ragnarok leaned down to peer at Crona, trying to lock her eyes form his upside down position, "You mean _you've_ gone days without food before. I _haven't_."

"It's not like I'm a witch and can make food magically appear." Crona responded.

Ragnarok paused for a moment in thought and then started pounding on her head with his little fists, "Damn it, Crona! Why couldn't you have been a witch?!"

"Ow, Ragnarok! I-i don't know! Medusa-sama always told me I didn't have the potential!" Crona cried.

"Gupi." he pouted, crossing his arms and resting his head on them.

Crona sighed, "It's not like I have, or ever have, a choice. I don't know what to do, or where to go, to do anything."

Almost as if the answer to her problems, a tap on the door was magnified by the echoes against the stone walls. Crona looked toward the door, staring at it intently, Crona knew that it was probably Sid, but was wondering what she should do if it was someone else.

"Hello?" the familiar deep voice called.

Crona walked over to the door and hesitantly put grasped the handle. Just because it was Sid and she knew he wouldn't try to hurt her, it didn't mean she wasn't still afraid of him. She tugged the door and slowly creaked it open. Sid was there, hands in his pockets, waiting patiently.

"I wasn't usually the type to wait when I was alive, I was a very impatient man, but that was when I was alive." Sid greeted.

Crona kept silent, still afraid to make sudden movements while near Sid. He looked over to the papers on her desk and pointed to them.

"You fill them out?" he asked.

She looked toward the papers, "Hai, Sid-san."

Sid walked over to the papers and picked them up, "I'll take these over to Shinigami-sama once I return back to him."

Crona nodded, she was waiting for him to leave but as he turned to the door, her stomach growled so loudly, it sounded scary in the echoing room. Crona hadn't realized she was so hungry; she didn't think she should be, she ate a little more than three days ago.

"Ah, I guess I should get you a meal first." Sid said, "I'll be right back with something for you eat. Just wait for a few minutes for me.'

Crona blinked. She wasn't used to people being so nice to her yet. Before with Medusa, she rarely got two meals a day and she usually didn't get food again for a few days because of Ragnarok and his appetite with her meals.

Sid pulled the door open with the blue hand that wasn't holding the papers and left. Crona stared at the door even after Sid had left. She stayed in her spot, doing nothing, not moving. Crona looked at the wall in front of her, wondering why was she was even bothering to try to lead a normal life.

* * *

"Wait, Soul, NO!"

_Crash._

Maka stared at broken glass on the floor. She and Soul were supposed to be dusting off the wall lamps in the halls of Shibusen, but Soul and Black*Star just had to play catch with the soap bottle he and Tsubaki were supposed to use to scrub the floors. Black*Star had tripped Soul, making him landing the water bucket. Pissed off, Soul used the bottle they were playing with as a missile, chucking it at Black*Star, aiming for his head.

Predictably, Black*Star ducked and it hit one of the lamps on the wall. Black*Star laughed, obviously not concerned about the damage.

"Ha, ha, ha! You missed! You suck at throwing, Soul! There's no way you can get me, the man who will transcend god!" Black*Star boasted egotistically.

Death the Kid shook his head ruefully. He, Liz, and Patty had the job to help the citizens of Death City, but they were taking a break from their duty. Ox Ford, Harvar, and Kim had been kind enough to volunteer to take their shift so he could help his friends with their responsibilities. Though, Soul and Black*Star insisted on messing around.

"For someone who let the Kishin revive, I wouldn't say that." Kid stated solemnly.

Black*Star clenched his hands into fists, squeezed his eyes shut, and grinded his teeth, "No need for the low blow, Kid."

Everyone knew that Black*Star was having it heavy on his shoulders because of his mistake, the also Kid felt horrible because he said he 'failed his duty as a shinigami.' Though, Kid was the gloomiest out of the two. Black*Star still tried to hold on to his vainness, but sometime it faltered.

Tsubaki patted Black*Star on his shoulder comfortingly, "It's not your fault, it was just a mistake." She tried to reassure him with her soft voice.

He swatted her arm away and replied in a gruff voice, "Don't try to comfort me, Tsubaki. I need to take full responsibility for my actions if I ever want to be a god."

Tsubaki looked hurt, but just set her eyes on the ground. An uncomfortable silence lingered in the air. Maka bent down and started picking up the shards of glass, trying not to cut herself.

"We should pick this up," she said trying to break the silence, "Soul."

He turned to her and nodded, bending down, he started to help her pick up the glass.

Death the Kid sigh, "I'll go get a bag for you to put the glass in.'

He walked down the hall and disappeared. Liz and Patty watched him worriedly. All of them were concerned for Kid. Ever since Asura was revived, he was depressed. He wasn't even going about his regular OCD problem. Liz and Patty made everything in the house unsymmetrical in attempt to get him to show any reaction, but Kid ignored it and said he didn't even care anymore.

Maka bit her lip, what do you suppose we should do to help Kid-kun?"

Tsubaki closed her eyes and brought her hands up to her chin, "He's really been hit hard by this hasn't he?"

Black*Star folded his arms over his chest, "I'm sure Kid will get better eventually." He gritted his teeth and added, "He is a god after all."

Soul took the glass from his and Maka's hands and put it all in a pile.

"I think Maka's right, we should try to help Kid." He replied standing up and putting his hands in his pockets.

"I want the old Kid-kun back again." Patty whispered.

When Kid became depressed, she and Liz had had become very sullen. Patty wasn't her regular giggly self, and it was scary in a way, to she her usually happy face pulled into such a somber expression. Liz had stopped caring about her appearance as much; she had stopped straightening her hair, so it was messier than she ever allowed it to be, her clothes weren't perfectly matched anymore. Today she was wearing a gray T-shirt and some running sweats.

"I don't know what to do." Liz said gnawing on her knuckle, "Kid is like a brother to Patty and me, we don't want him to feel this way."

"Am I coming in on a private conversation?" a monotone voice asked.

Kid was at the end of the hall, he had a trash bag in his fist, his expression was pulled into one of anger. Maka pushed herself off the ground and held onto Soul's arm.

"Kid," she started, "We're sorry, we're just worried about you and-"

"Don't apologize." he growled in a flat voice, "I don't want your pity, I can take care of myself."

Patty went over to him and took the bag from his hand. She tossed it to the side and threw herself to embrace him in a hug.

"Kid, we want you to be yourself again. You're still a great shinigami even if the Kishin did revive. Liz and I love you; we just want to help you." She sobbed, tears running down her cheeks.

Everyone stared; no one had ever seen Patty cry before. Kid only looked down at her, he took her shoulders and pushed her off of him. He looked through Patty, giving everyone else a hard glare. He started to turn away, but Patty exclaimed to him before he could leave.

"Kid, you're like my an Onee-chan's big brother, and you're everyone else's friend, please don't hate us all like this!"

Death the Kid turned toward them all, "Just leave me alone, damn it. Nothing you can say will make all of this crap not happen. So just stop trying to damn help me."

New tears welled up in Patty's eyes. Liz hugged her little sister's shoulders, turning to glare at Kid.

"What the hell is wrong with you!? Just because of some slight error you think that you can mope around and make everyone else miserable!? We go out of our way for you, damn it! Patty and I care for you Kid, and leaving her crying like this! That's not what a shinigami would do, that's what a bastard would do!" Liz screamed.

Kid clenched his hands into tight fists and stiffened his shoulders. Instead of responding, he just started to walk away. Suddenly Kid ran into someone in his way. Looking up, he saw the familiar past teacher.

"Hello, Sid-sensei." Kid greeted solemnly.

Sid took a step back and bowed, "Hello to you, Death the Kid-san."

Sid looked at the group of friends, ignoring the uncomfortable aura, "Shinigami-sama wants a word with all of you."

Kid furrowed his eyebrow, "Why does Father need a word with us?"

"That's what I'd like to know too." Sid replied.

Maka took notice of something, "What's that in your hand?" she asked pointing to the papers in his grasp.

"Huh? Oh, just some test papers." Sid replied, he seemed to be lying.

Maka knew that when Sid used to be her teacher he was a horrible liar, it was no different now.

"I've got to go somewhere else, so head off." Sid told them.

"Where are you going?" Tsubaki asked curious.

Sid seemed like he was cornered, "I'm going to the kitchen's to get a snack."

Tsubaki tilted her head to the side, "Shouldn't the kitchen's be closed at this hour. Unless there's a special reason, is there?"

"Uh…"

"Besides," Patty piped up, wiping some of the remaining tears on her face away, "If you're a zombie do even need to eat?"

"Shinigami sent me to get you, so I think you should go." Sid responded quickly.

They all nodded looking at him suspiciously, and walked the hallways to Shinigami's Death room, Sid had said he'd pick up their cleaning supplies and put them away for them. Death the Kid was in front of them, his pace faster than theirs, wanting to get as far away from them as possible without heading out in a sprint. They all stopped in front of the two grand doors, everyone waited for Kid to knock, it was his father and he was in the as well. Sensing the expectance of all of his friends behind him, Kid knocked on the door to his father's room.

"Come in." Shinigami invited.

The group of teenagers entered the room, walking to Shinigami, waiting for him to tell them what he wanted to say.

"Hello, hello!" he greeted them cheerfully.

He saw all their grim expressions and became worried, "Oh dear, did somebody die?"

Death the Kid shook his head reassuring his father, "No, Father."

"Ah, anyways, I called you all here to discuss a matter." Shinigami started.

"Hai," they said in unison.

"I wanted to talk about the new guest at Shibusen."

They all nodded, the girls waited, filled with expectation, while the boys waited suspicious. Maka wondered who the guest was; she hoped she could help whoever it was feel comfortable right away. Tsubaki patiently waited for Shinigami to say who it was that was here visiting Shibusen, maybe she would invite them to a dinner with her and Black*Star. Liz huffed impatiently, whoever it was had better be important to keep her from thrashing at Kid. Patty stared at the ground, she was daydreaming who this person might be, maybe they would play with her and keep her distracted form Kid-kun.

"Well, after Sid looked through the underground ruins, he found the child and bought it here-"

"It was a little kid?" Black*Star scoffed, "Who cares about that?"

Shinigami decided to let the egotistic slide this time, "You all know who it is, especially Maka-"

"Then why do we care if we already know the person already!?" Black*Star interrupted again.

Shinigami hit him in the head with a Shinigami Chop, doing this reminded him of fighting Asura, but he pushed that from his thoughts, "Back to what I was saying, our guest is one you all know. But Maka and Soul are the only ones that I feel will not have a negative reaction."

All the suspense was making them strain themselves from getting impatient.

Death the Kid spoke up, "Who is this person, Father?"

Shinigami looked at his son ruefully, he knew that Kid was going to have a horrible reaction to his next words, "Our guest is the Demon Sword. Since Medusa is dead and it seems to be harmless we decided to keep it here at Shibusen. Right now it's in one of the cell rooms on one of the bottom halls."

He saw Kid stiffen so completely at the answer he felt that he should be concerned. Black*Star had a look of shocked skepticism on his face, like he didn't want to believe what he had heard. Tsubaki had a hand to her mouth, obviously hiding a horrified gasp. Liz and Patty's eyes were wide as they looked at their meister's father. Soul sighed, remembering the thin technician he had encountered and made friends with. Maka however, had a different reaction than all of them, her expression brightened and she jumped forward to Shinigami.

"You mean that Crona is here?" she asked in an excited voice, her eyes sparkling.

Every one of her friends, other than Soul, gave her a look of complete disbelief. Maka looked between all of them, wondering why they looked at her so. Then she remembered that she had not told them about Crona and them making friends with each other.

Shinigami was grateful to Maka for her outburst because he now knew the pink meister's name.

Maka explained herself, "It's okay guys, Crona isn't that bad. Just misunderstood is all."

Death the Kid was the only one who ignored Maka completely, not wanting to listen to her words, still infuriated that his honorable father let that _thing _into his school. The same school he would take over one day, he didn't want it infecting this clean ground with it's sins and evil. Kid looked at his father who was listening to the story he was blocking out, he didn't care what Maka said about the Demon Sword, it was evil and insane.

Shinigami listened to Maka's story about how she and the Demon Sword Crona became friends. Throughout the whole thing, Shinigami was listening to she what gender Crona was. He hadn't and idea with that neutral dress, but sadly Maka didn't give anything away that told the Demon Sword's gender. He felt his son's glare toward him, Shinigami predicted that Kid would want to stay behind to talk to him privately, so Shinigami pretended that he didn't noticed Kid. He saw the light in everyone else's eyes as Maka started to tell them about Crona's poor past and how she'd seen into her soul. He was proud of Maka for being able to do such an ability, listening, he learned that the child was even more abused than he had thought. Then he learned that Ragnarok seemed to have shrunk in size, Maka said that she had no idea how it happened but it did.

'Ah,' Shinigami realized, 'Maka's friendship must have had a cleansing effect on Crona's soul, which, since it and Ragnarok are attached, it effected him as well. Interesting.'

Patty let out a series of '_Aww_'s while Maka was going about Crona's sad past. She felt bad for the poor girl, was it a girl? Patty thought it was a girl, with the dress and pink hair. When she, Liz, and Kid were on the Nidhogg, she had asked her Onee-chan whether it was a boy or a girl to make sure, but she didn't answer. Patty looked over at her sister; she could see that in her eyes there was pity for the strange person. Liz had told her when they returned home that she would never forgive the swordsman for taking the soul of the ghost that had helped her. Though, as Patty stared at her now, she could tell that opinion was changing about the kid named Crona.

She looked over at Kid-kun, he was in the same spot he was before, they had all gathered around Maka, but Kid stayed where he was, back to them. Patty knew that since it was Kid, he was going to be stubborn, and not give this Crona a chance. After what it had said during their battle, Kid wasn't going to forgive or forget. Patty wanted to meet the strange swordsman and ask it whether it was a boy or a girl, and the way Maka described the black thing called Ragnarok in its tiny form, she wanted to see it.

Shinigami was saddened when Maka finished; the way she told it made it seems like a very good book left unfinished. He ignored the urge to tell her to finish the story and waved to them goodbye. And of course, as he predicted, Kid stayed back, telling everyone to go without him.

Death the Kid turned to his father, "Father, why did you let that _thing_ into our school? It's evil and has sinned, something like that doesn't deserve to be trusted."

"Now, Kid, didn't you hear Maka? The poor child has been through a lot." Shinigami told his son sadly.

"I didn't notice," Kid replied blandly, "It will try to gain our trust and then it will attack us all, probably carrying Medusa's wishes. _Things_ like that will turn on us when we don't expect it, whatever that _it_ is, witch, demon, mutant, or whatever."

"Kid, don't be so harsh. Crona, or anyone for a matter of fact, shouldn't be called a thing or an it." Shinigami scolded.

"So it's called Crona? Well, if it's not to be called an it, then what may I ask is it?" Kid challenged.

"Crona is a person, like everyone else. Crona just has differences, like everyone else." Shinigami replied.

"And gender-wise?" Kid knew he would win with this on question, "If you can answer this question then I'll agree that the Demon Blade isn't an it."

Shinigami sighed harshly, "I don't know, Kid. But you haven't even give the poor child a chance."

Kid snorted, "Poor child. Honorable Father, I'm sure it, as well as anyone else of its caliber, can lie. It's a witch's creation, anything that has something to do with a witch is only going to try to help Asura, or something along those lines."

Shinigami watched his son through his mask, the way his son's yellow eyes glowed with hatred, made Shinigami felt uneasy. It reminded him of Medusa in a way, those yellow snake-like eyes had held a faint background of the searing hatred she felt. But Shinigami just felt that Crona would be a miracle, he didn't know why, but he decided to go with that instinct.

"Kid, I feel that I am making a decision for the wiser. I trust Crona and I think that Crona will help things." Shinigami explained.

Kid narrowed his eyes, "I don't know why I'm arguing with you, Father. I am not going to accept that thing into my daily life. Everyone else can get sucked into its tricks, but I won't."

Shinigami patted his son on the head, glancing slightly to the unconnected Sanzu Lines, "Kid, Crona may be a good addition to our school, and I just want things to go nicely. I really want you to give the Demon Sword a chance. It might even be possible that you may become friends."

Kid swung to his eyes up to his father, "I do not want to hear such things, Father." he hissed, "Especially from you, I look up to you, my Honorable Father."

"I'm sorry, Kid. I suppose I can't force you to think from my perspective." Shinigami sighed.

Death the Kid lowered his eyes, he didn't like to disappoint his father, "I should be apologizing, Father. I shouldn't have showed such disrespect."

"At least don't try to murder the child. Let Crona have some happiness."

Kid shut his eyes and sighed, "Maybe, Father, maybe. No promises of me being nice either, but maybe. I'll think about it."

Shinigami nodded, "Well, then. Off you go, my son. If you have any more problems with our new guest or anything else, just come to me."

Kid nodded and turned to leave, "Goodbye, Father."

Shinigami waved, "Goodbye, Kid."

Death the Kid walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. He leaned against the door and slid onto the ground, thinking.

'What should I do?' he wondered, 'I don't want to let that thing into my personal activities, nor do I want it to talk to me or any of my friends. Though I definitely don't want to disappoint father. Damn it, what should I do?'

* * *

Crona was sitting back in the corner she seemed to take fondness in, breathing deeply, clearing her mind. Ragnarok was being nice and let her have a few hours of peace to help her get all the stress off of her thin shoulders. Sid had brought back a few granola bars for their breakfast and Crona thanked him gratefully while Ragnarok complained that it wasn't enough, so Sid ever so nicely gave Ragnarok a chocolate bar.

There was a loud knock on the door. Crona sighed, how many times was Sid planning on coming to door, she almost wasn't frightened of him anymore… almost, though she wondered why he knocked really loud this time. Shinigami seemed to want Sid to make her as comfortable as possible, he sent Sid to give her softer pillows and blankets, so maybe he was mad for going out of his way, she was also surprised Sid wasn't breathless from going back and forth. Though that may be due to him being a zombie, not needing to breath and all.

"You can come in." she grumbled, she expected to see Sid appear in the doorway, but nearly went into cardiac arrest seeing that it wasn't him.

There was a boy with blue hair, looking at her. Recognizing the boy Crona cowered into her corner like a scared bunny, she reminded herself of the chibi-chan when she was smaller. The boy walked toward her, his expression one of seriousness. He stood in front of her and crossed his arms. Crona trembled in fear, this was the boy who was originally supposed to kill her before Maka traded him opponents.

"So, we meet again, Demon Sword." he said blandly.

Crona lifted her arms to her scalp and started to babble apologies "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, that I hurt people, and that boy Maka's always with! I'm really sorry, I know what I did was bad and I know that I deserve it, but please don't hurt me! I'm really sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

The boy above her snorted, "I'm sorry."

He lifted his hand and Crona felt like she was going to pass out.

"BLACK*STAR!"

They both froze and looked toward the open door.

"BLACK*STAR! BLACK*STAR, WAIT UP!"

Suddenly a figure appeared leaning against the doorframe, huffing and catching their breath. Crona brightened as she realized who it was. Maka had her eyes closed and was panting for breath, another girl came up beside her and was doing the same thing Maka was, just on the opposite side of the doorframe. She had long black hair pulled into a ponytail; she wore a pale, skin colored dress with a slit that reached her waist. She wore boots and a sock that reached her thigh on her right leg.

"Black*Star, don't run so far ahead." The girl panted.

"It's not my fault all of you are slow." The boy apparently named Black*Star stated.

Another boy and two other girls sauntered up behind the Maka and the other girl, Crona remembered this boy with the white hair and crimson eyes as Soul, but she didn't recognize the other two. One of the girls was tall, about Crona's height, she had long brownish-blond hair and blue eyes, her hands were on her hips. The other girl was shorter, with short blonde hair, she had blue eyes, too, but she was rocking back and forth on her feet.

"You girls seriously tried to run to catch up with him? Uncool." The boy Soul told them.

"I wouldn't have bothered." The taller girl said.

The younger one just stared around the stone room in awe.

Maka pushed herself off the doorframe and her eyes found Crona, "Hi, Crona!"

Crona waved a small little wave, still cornered by the blue haired Black*Star.

Maka walked over to her, pushing Black*Star out of her way, and kneeled down to smile at her. She held a hand out to Crona, "How 'bout you come out that corner so I can introduce you to my friends?"

Crona hesitated, but placed her hand in Maka's. They both stood up. Everyone noticed how, even though Maka was obviously shorter, Crona seemed smaller than her new friend. The way they held themselves made a big difference, Maka always was proud and stood tall as she could, Crona, however, was timid and didn't like to be noticed, so she hunched down.

Maka pointed to the blue haired boy, "That's Black*Star, he can be a bit loud and vain, just so you know."

Crona nodded, hiding behind Maka, she was scared of Black*Star, he seemed one to throw himself in your face. So she felt she would try not to socialize with him too much.

Maka guided her to the girl with long black hair, "This is Tsubaki, she's Black*Star's weapon, she's really patient and nice. How she deal's with his ego, I'll never know."

Tsubaki brushed some loose strands of hair away from her face, gave Crona a sweet smile, and waved. Crona felt that Tsubaki was really nice, she would want to be a good friend with her, so she gave a very faint attempt at a smile. Tsubaki thought it was sweet that Crona tried to smile for her.

Then Maka led Crona to the other two girls, "That's Liz and that's Patty." She said pointing them out, "They're the Thompson sisters. They're both weapons, their meister is gone right now."

Crona nodded, the one whose name was Liz seemed a bit impatient, but she looked nice enough. The girl named Patty looked like she'd be a really nice person; she had a bouncy little personality, a bit too cheery in Crona's eyes, but she was willing to tolerate that. Crona suddenly had a curious thought.

"Where's their meister?" Crona asked.

Liz, Patty, Tsubaki, and Black*Star seemed shocked that she had spoken, but Soul and Maka ignored them. Maka answered with a frown on her face, she seemed angry.

"Oh, he's talking to his father, if not he's just wandering somewhere sulking."

Crona asked aloud another one of the thoughts, "Is he sad? I- well if he's sulking somewhere wouldn't he be sad?"

Maka thought it was cute that Crona was concerned for someone she didn't know, for someone who hated her, "No, he's just pouting about something, that's all."

Crona looked at the ground, "Oh."

Maka smiled, "You already know Soul, so I don't think I have to introduce you to him."

Crona nodded and smiled.

Patty thought Crona looked really pretty when smiling, or should she say cute? What if Crona was a boy, then wouldn't it be cute? She walked over to the thin Demon Sword wielder. Crona stared at her, scared almost, so Patty tried to be careful with her question.

"Hey, are you a boy or a girl?"

Maka stiffened staring at Patty, Tsubaki cleared her throat awkwardly, Liz opened her mouth seeming to want to say something, Black*Star burst into laughter, and Soul cracked a smile. Crona blushed, her face heating up slightly.

"WOW!" Patty exclaimed, "CRONA'S TURNING GRAY!"

Everyone looked toward Crona, her cheeks where a light gray. Though after Patty exclaimed her discovery, Crona turned a deep gray to almost black. They realized, that since Crona had black blood, that it'd only be normal for her to blush gray. They were also kind of relieved that Patty had asked her inappropriate question; they all wondered what Crona's gender was. Maka felt that Crona was a girl, but Soul said he thought Crona was just a gay dude; Maka hit Soul with her thickest book after that.

Liz hadn't really thought about it, but she agreed with Soul uncaringly, but she really did agree with him.

'If Crona's a guy,' she had thought, 'He's really cute. Shy boys are always adorable. Maybe I'll ask him out.'

Tsubaki hadn't worried over it; she thought Crona would be the same person whether it was a boy or a girl. Black*Star said that if Crona was a guy, he would trample him in a duel for hurting Soul, and if it was a girl… he would hold back a little.

Patty looked at the blushing Crona; she thought Crona looked cute when he/she was blushing, too. Crona seemed to be trying to hide from everyone.

Patty tugged at Crona's dress sleeve, "So?"

Crona looked down at the happy blonde who was pulling at her sleeve. It was a very awkward answer to give, but Patty wasn't being harsh, the blonde was just merely curious. Crona shuffled her feet and squirmed a little. The answer was easy, but delivering it was the problem.

"I- um- I'm, uhh…" she stumbled, blushing to an extent that may have been dangerous.

Black*Star thumped Crona on the back, making her lose her breath, "Come on just spit it out." He encouraged.

Maka shoved Black*Star away from Crona, "Don't do that! You'll scare her!"

Soul shifted, "Crona's a guy Maka, saying he's a girl will only crush his ego."

"Saying that Crona looks and acts like a guy will only crush _her_ ego!" Maka hissed.

Tsubaki held her hand out in a gesture of kindness, "Let's not fight over this."

Black*Star watched their argument, an amused look on his face, he turned to Crona, "Whatever you are, I'm gonna kick your ass."

Crona whimpered.

Liz frowned at Black*Star, "Stop, your scaring the kid."

"Crona is a guy, you trying to convince people he's a girl will only lead to bad things." Soul and Maka were continuing their argument.

Maka turned to Liz, "You agree with me that Crona is a girl, right Liz?"

"I dunno, I think that Crona seems like a boy." She shrugged.

"NO! Come on! Patty?" Maka exclaimed.

"I don't know. I asked Onee-chan but she didn't answer me." Patty responded.

Crona bit her lip, so many people disagreeing over her, she finally decided she should speak up, "I'm a girl…"

Soul shot wide eyes toward her, Maka sent a smug smile in his direction, he coughed awkwardly into his fist, "Uhh, I, uh, I've got to go. See you at the apartment, Maka."

"Sure, Soul." Maka said feeling victorious.

Liz stared after Soul as he left; she was a bit embarrassed that she thought that Crona was a guy. Now she had to push her previous thoughts away from her memory, she walked over to the timid pink haired girl and smiled. Crona gave a trembling smile and gave a small wave. Liz still thought Crona was cute; maybe Crona would let her dress her up some time, that would be fun.

Black*Star cracked his knuckles, "Now that that's settled, let's go at it."

Crona looked at the loud boy with wide frightened eyes. She didn't want to fight. Maka saw the terror in Crona's eyes and pulled her away from Black*Star, she would have to make sure to keep them a safe distance from each other.

"How about you cross that off your to do list, okay, Black*Star?" Maka tried to persuade him.

"Sure, whatever. But the day will come!"

Maka narrowed her eyes, but turned back to Crona, "Say, do you want us to give you a tour of Shibusen?"

Patty popped in, "That would be awesome! What do you say Crona-chan?"

Crona looked between the cheerful blondes, "O-okay,"

Patty made a giddy little jump, "Yay!"

Crona felt the sensation in her spine; she didn't think that Ragnarok getting involved would be a good thing. The black blob that was her blood formed into the familiar shape of tiny Ragnarok on her head.

"Finally, we're going somewhere other than this room!" he grumbled.

Patty's eyes brightened, so this was Ragnarok in his cute form, on the ship he was big and muscular, now he was so cute! She wanted to cuddle him.

"Oooooh! Can I hug it?" Patty asked.

Ragnarok waved his arm frantically at her in anger, "NO! YOU CAN NOT CUDDLE ME!"

"Aww, it got angry." She giggled.

"Don't call me it! My name is Ragnarok!" he shouted.

"I think I'll call him by Raggy."

"You are _not_ allowed to call me by any nicknames!"

Tsubaki laughed along with Liz, "We think it's a funny name."

Patty pointed to her sister and Tsubaki, "See? They agree."

"Like I care!" Ragnarok responded.

Black*Star scoffed, "Stupid nicknames like that take away a man's pride."

Ragnarok pointed to Black*Star, "I totally agree with that idiot!"

"Hey!"

Crona giggled, "Aw, I think it's cute."

Ragnarok hit her on the head, "NO NICKNAMES!"

Patty swayed, "Crona thinks it's cute, too. Raggy it is then!"

Ragnarok started to pinch Crona's nose, "It's your fault! Now I have to go by that stupid nickname and it's because of _you_!"

Crona tried to swat his hand away, "No, stop it."

Ragnarok overpowered her and began to grind her head with his small fists while Crona begged him to stop. Everyone other than Maka stared; they'd never seen Crona get bullied before. But Maka just got out her handy book and aimed for the angle she wanted.

"Maka… CHOP!"

The book hit Ragnarok on his head hard, making a big _thud_. He turned to her and started laughing.

"HA! You thought you could hurt me, huh? Don't underestimate the black blood, she-pig. I hardened myself." Ragnarok stuck his tongue out at her.

Maka's eye twitched, but she ignored him. She grabbed Crona's arm and dragged her out of the room. Black*Star said he was going home to go lift weights and Tsubaki went with him. Liz said she was going home to start cooking dinner for that night. Patty said she was going to stay with them and hang out with Crona.

They walked around and the hallways. Maka asked Crona what class she was going to, when Crona had said she was going to be in Class Crescent Moon, Maka's eyes brightened and started explaining everything they had learned so far to try and get Crona up to speed. Crona nodded her head, not knowing what at all Maka was trying to explain. Maka showed her the bulletin board full of missions, it was very big and Crona stared at it. Smiling, Maka said that if she wanted to, Crona could go on her first mission with her and Soul. Crona agreed immediately and Patty asked randomly if Crona liked giraffes.

Patty walked around with Maka and Crona. She liked Crona she was funny and cute. Patty thought back to Kid and how he had made her cry earlier that day. She sighed inwardly, she didn't want people to see her sad, people took it hard to see her sad. Patty looked at her new timid friend; she had a smile on her face, she seemed really happy even though she looked sad at the same time. Patty wondered if Ragnarok ever hurt her really bad, emotionally or physically. He had bullied her in her room in front of everyone, but Crona looked like she was used to it and just asked him to stop. Patty didn't think that Ragnarok would want to make Crona cry though, she didn't know.

"Hey, Crona?" Patty asked, "Does Raggy ever make you cry?"

Both Maka and the pink haired meister looked at Patty. The cheerful blonde was looking at the floor, a sad aura around her; she was scuffing her shoes on the tiled floor. Crona thought for a moment for her answer.

"I guess…sometimes when he hurts me enough he does. Though he really doesn't mean to… well, sometimes he doesn't. Why?"

"Oh," Patty continued to look down, "It's nothing."

Maka started to open her mouth, but Crona walked over to Patty and gave her a hesitant hug, "Maka made me feel better with a hug, I… want to make you feel better, too."

Patty smiled, Crona was so sweet. Even though she was sure Crona had more than enough problems, here she was trying to comfort someone she's barely met.

"Kya- ha- ha! What are you being so worried about silly?" Patty giggled.

Crona removed her thin arms from Patty and gave her own small smile. They walked around the rest of the school, Maka was telling Crona some of the rules and events that went on, while Patty threw in some "fun facts" about where some kids threw up or which classroom seats someone peed in. They were walking down the hall that had Shinigami's Death Room at the end of it. Maka pointed to the doors.

"Of course you know that that's Shinigami's room." Maka said to Crona.

Crona smiled, "Shinigami is very nice, he's the one who's allowing me to stay here."

Maka beamed, "Yeah, Shinigami is nice, he also let Black*Star in when he was a baby."

Crona's eyes widened, "Really?"

Maka nodded, "Yup."

Patty noticed something, "Hey, what's that?"

Crona and Maka turned to what she was pointing at. In front of Shinigami's Death Room, there was a black heap on the floor, it was moving slightly. Hesitantly, Maka went over and poked it. The thing groaned, she yelped and stepped back. On closer examination, she saw three white stripes highlighted in the black.

"Oh," she grumbled, "It's just Kid."

Patty put a finger to her chin, "Kid-kun?"

Crona tilted her head in confusion, "Who is that?"

Maka looked at Crona, "Oops, I forgot! Kid is Liz and Patty's meister. Sorry, I just remembered you didn't know."

Crona blinked and faced Patty, "That's your meister?"

Patty bobbed her head, "Yup. Kid is Shinigami's son, so me and Onee-chan have the privilege to be his weapons. His full name is Death the Kid, but we all call him just Kid-kun."

Death the Kid stirred from his slumber and raised his head. He could hear familiar voices, he recognized Maka and Patty's, but the third one he did not know, though he felt he'd heard it somewhere. His blurry vision came into some focus; Maka's figure appeared first because she was kneeling in front of him. She didn't have any specific expression as she stared at him.

"Maka?" he mumbled, "Why are you here?"

Maka's lips turned down and her eyes set, "Why are you here, Kid? You're laying down in front of your father's office."

Looking around, the familiar location of the hall he was in became apparent, "How long was I asleep?!"

"How should I know? We just found you."

"We?"

Patty appeared beside Maka, "Hey, sleepy head!"

"Patty? Wait, why we you guys in the hall anyway?" Kid asked them.

"Oh," Maka said hesitantly.

Patty grinned, "We were showing Crona around!"

Kid sat up with such speed, Maka and Patty had to quickly move out of the way. Sure enough, the Demon Sword's thin body was standing a little ways away. It was wearing its usual plain black dress, looking over at him with worried eyes.

'Worried?' Death the Kid thought, 'It's not worried, all of it is an act, playing with everyone with its lies.'

Crona watched as Maka and Patty went over to the boy on the ground, was he the one who Maka said was sad or 'just sulking around'? She hoped that he was all right, and if he was Shinigami's son, maybe he was nice; she wanted to be friends with everyone.

Death the Kid stared at the Demon Sword, standing there, pretending to be worried. It almost made him sick that something like that was even in this school. Kid stood up and walked past the two girls that were kneeling in front of him. Storming up to it, he pointed at the Demon Sword; the one who'd caused Soul and Maka so much misery, who's mother was he cause for everything wrong that had happened.

"What is this doing here?" he shouted.

Crona was shocked at how angry this boy seemed to be, how harshly he yelled. She suddenly recognized who it was, being able to see his face now. This was the boy who had battled her on that ship; she knew they'd had a bad encounter, but she didn't think that she'd be yelled at this way. Well, she had expected this treatment from the beginning, but after everyone being so nice…

Maka went up to Kid, "Kid! What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" he exploded, "It's just that I never wanted a **monster** in my father's school!"

Crona froze. A monster? She knew that she had done a lot of bad things and killed lots of innocent people, a sinner, yes, but truly a monster?

Kid knew that he'd said to his father that he'd try to give the Demon Sword a chance, but now that it was in front of him, he couldn't stop the hatred that made him so ill. Maka looked at Crona's hurt face.

"Stop, you're hurting Crona's feelings!" she yelled at him.

Kid looked at the Demon Sword that was a foot or so away. He grabbed it roughly by the pink hair on its head and shook it violently. He felt disgusted touching it.

"Hurt its feeling?" he asked, "Like hell, they're all lies, Maka! It's only carrying on Medusa's orders. It'll take every soul here in Shibusen just so it can join Asura!"

Kid's grip on Crona's hair was painful. She whimpered, it was just like before, where every touch meant pain. Crona's blood felt like it was boiling inside of her, thought it wasn't her who was deadly angry.

Patty stared at Kid's violent actions and saw that Crona's face was twisted in pain as he gripped her hair.

"Quit it!" patty screamed, "You're hurting her!"

Death the Kid laughed a harsh chuckle, "Her. I don't think it's a her, I don't even think it's human."

Tears welled up in Crona's eyes and started to roll down her cheeks endlessly. Suddenly, Ragnarok exploded from her back and punched Kid, he was sent a few feet back from Crona.

"Don't you ever hurt Crona, you bitch. Damn it, I don't want you to even freaking touch her!" Ragnarok yelled.

Blood was running down Kid's cheek, Ragnarok's hit had cut through his skin. Crona wondered why this had happened; everything had been going so good. More tears ran down her gray, flushed cheeks.

Kid rolled his hands into fists, "I want that thing to get out of my sight."

Sobbing now, Crona turned and ran down the hall, her footsteps clacking against the tile floor. Maka sent a quick rude gesture with her hand toward Kid before running after the crying swordsman. Patty had tears glistening in her eyes as well as she turned to Kid. She raised her fist and punched him on his other cheek. Splitting his skin there, too, causing blood to dribble down to his chin.

"To make it symmetrical." She growled before going to join the other two girls.

Death the Kid watched as Patty sprinted down the hall. He was positive that Maka was going to tell everyone else, he would have to stay clear of everyone. Sighing, he started to walk down the hall; he hadn't an idea where he was going. He knew he should apologize to the thing and the girls, but he also knew that they wee probably at the Demon Sword's room, and he didn't know where that was. So he just roamed silently through the school.

* * *

Crona ran to her room, there was nowhere else to run to. She slammed the door, the echo making the noise painfully loud. Crona sat in the corner she always did and tightened herself into a ball, her tears soaking into the black fabric of her dress. She let out small hiccups and tried to control her breathing.

Ragnarok slid out and started to pet her head, in an attempt to comfort her. Crona was grateful for his concern and unusual kindness.

"It's okay, Crona. That retarded little shinigami is just a bastard. He doesn't know what he's talking about." Ragnarok told her softly.

Crona just shook her head and wiped away the tears on her cheeks, "No, he's right. I am a monster; I don't deserve any of this. I would be better of disappearing."

Ragnarok smoothed out the hair Kid had messed up, "It was Medusa-sama's fault for turning us into that. Don't go dumping it on yourself."

Crona kept silent, so Ragnarok poked her nose in a playful gesture. Seeing that Crona wasn't showing any reaction, he wrapped his tiny arms around her forehead, his attempt at a hug.

"If it'll make you feel better, I'll let you cuddle me." Ragnarok invited, "But only this once though."

Crona laughed once at this statement, but it was brought down by sadness.

"Crona?"

Ragnarok and Crona both looked up. The familiar voice was Maka outside the door. Putting her head back down into her arms, Crona sighed. She didn't want Maka worrying about her, but she couldn't just tell her to go away.

"You can come in," Crona whispered.

The scythe technician opened the door and looked for her friend inside. Obviously, the frail body of the thin swordsman was in the corner of the room in a tight ball. Maka went over to sit with her and put her arm around Crona's thin shoulders. Ragnarok cast a worried glance at Maka. It touched her heart that Crona's partner showed some concern, but she couldn't linger on that emotion just now, her friend was in pain.

A set of footsteps was heard coming down the hall, since Maka had left the door open. Patty stepped into the room, she saw the pair of friends huddled in the corner and joined them, sitting on the opposite side of Crona. Patty took one of Crona's hands and patted I comfortingly.

"Kid-kun is taking everything hard right now, so it's turning him into an asshole. So I would just ignore him if I were you, Crona." Patty said.

Crona smiled at Patty's words, "Thanks, but… I think that your meister may be right. I'm a bad person, I shouldn't be here."

Maka took Crona by the shoulders and shook her, "Don't say that, Crona. You're not a bad person, you're the best person I know."

Crona hung her head, "Shinigami-kun doesn't think so."

* * *

Death the Kid was walking in the stone corridors of Shibusen' how he ended up there, he didn't know, nor did he care. His hands were in his pockets as he randomly walked the school. He raised a hand to his cheek and felt his open injury. He pulled his hand away from his cheek when it had started to sting. How violently they all acted to protect that evil creature.

He sighed, shivering at how cold it was on these lower levels of Shibusen. He slid his hand across the stone wall; his hand was full of dust after he removed it from the wall. It was very dirty down here; his old urge to clean this dump came to him faintly. Everyone had gone into frenzy when he had given up on his symmetry OCD; Kid thought that was stupid, he was completely fine. At least he thought he was.

Suddenly he started to hear muffled noises. Spinning around he tried to figure out what it was. Maybe he was hearing things in his head? Looking around he saw nothing, but the sounds continued.

"Hello?" he called.

Silence.

He started to walk toward the noise, wondering what it would lead him to. Straining his ears, he tried to put a name to the sound. He stopped and stood completely still, closing his eyes, and listening carefully. Some of the muffles began to form into words.

"… We don't… worry… it's okay…"

Reopening his eyes, he followed the words, wondering who it was. It was too distant to try to single out who it was; it was hard to tell whom talking. He went in its general direction, the closer he seemed to get the clearer the noises became.

"…He'll get over it eventually. Just wait till then!"

Death the Kid recognized this voice as Patty, and her voice was coming from behind one of the cells room doors. Number 27, he noted. He leaned an ear toward the door, trying to listen in on what they were saying about him. He knew he would probably regret eavesdropping and end up hearing some things he'd rather not know, but he took his chance.

"I want to talk and be friends with him, but Shinigami-kun apparently doesn't like me." a soft voice whispered.

Kid listened to this soft voice; it was sweet and quiet, though it was weighted down with sadness, grief, and pain. Death the Kid realized that it was the Demon Sword who had spoken, he twitched. Why did such an evil creature have such a voice?

'To lure in its prey.' Kid thought.

His thoughts went to Medusa, how she put on that fake sweet smile. How she laughed and praised the children, inside running destructive plans through her head. The Demon Sword was just doing the same thing, fooling everyone; waiting to strike at everyone, like a snake with its venom ready, just like its mother. His hand twitched, wanting to hit mutant and its mother until they both bleed and yelped in pain.

From behind the door, he heard the sound of someone moving, then Maka's voice started to speak.

"Maybe if we began to have you around more, Kid would get used to the idea of and accept you.' She encouraged.

Kid disagreed with this idea, 'It'll take more than that to get me to accept that thing.'

He heard a sniffle and more movement, suddenly he heard soft sobs, the Demon Sword was crying. Kid felt no pity, only dislike for it.

'Just a play,' he thought, 'The thing certainly inherited its mother's acting abilities.'

Death the Kid could almost hear the tears falling to the floor. The Demon Sword's little sobs grew louder, with small hiccups and deep breaths.

"I don't want anyone to hate me!" The Demon Sword cried, "Shinigami-kun has a good reason to, but I want to be friends with all of you!"

"Crona, it's okay, things will get better eventually. I can't guarantee it will be soon, but one day. We just need to be patient with Kid, please don't cry." Maka said.

Kid heard the Demon Sword try to muffle its sobs.

"I-i'm s-sorry, Maka. I'm just…" the Demon Sword said through its stifled sobs.

"Crona-chan," Patty's voice comforted, "If you want us to leave so you can cry, we will."

"Oh," Maka said, as if the thought that the Demon Sword wanted to be alone never crossed her thoughts, "We'll leave you alone if you want, Crona. Do you want us to?"

Death the Kid only heard some quiet sniffles, but Maka said, "Okay, we should let you be. Come on, Patty."

Panicked, Kid searched for a place to run to, they couldn't find out he was there, they would kill him. He ran down the hall and went around the nearest corner, hiding behind the wall. Peeking from his area, he saw Maka and Patty leave the room that apparently belonged to the Demon Sword. He watched them until they disappeared and cautiously walked to the door they left from. He pressed his ear against the cold metal, not needing to worry too much now about being caught. He heard some quiet murmurs, probably that creature Ragnarok and the Demon Sword were talking.

Death the Kid felt that this may be his only chance to talk privately with the thing. And he had to apologize to it, like it or not, or everyone would be even more pissed at him then they were now. He wouldn't mean his apology, of course not, but he would make that obvious. He would explain to the Demon Sword that he didn't want to be friends, just keeping peace.

Frowning, Death The Kid raised his hand to the door. He didn't want to talk to the mutant inside of this room; he wanted it to be dead along with its mother. He pressed his knuckles to the hard metal, taking a deep breath; he tried to knock lightly so it wouldn't show the hostility he was feeling.

Kid twitched as the Demon Sword spoke, "It's open, you can come in."

It almost killed Kid to obey the words. Sucking in a deep breath, he opened the door and walked in.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This chapter was kind of fun to write, but it was also the hardest so far (I've been having major writer's block). Well, all my chapters are hard to write and I enjoy writing all of them, but in this one you get a little detail about Crona's relationships with Eruka, Free, and some other people in her past. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, if I did, Crona would be getting a **_**lot **_**more screen time.**

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Chapter 3

A Violent Truce, Tears, and a Death Celebration?

Crona wiped away some of her tears by rubbing her cheek on the black fabric of her dress on her shoulder. She closed her eyes and started to whisper a small song she had heard so long ago, it had always calmed her when she sang it. It was in Latin, so she didn't really know the meaning to the words, but the rhythm was soothing. Medusa used to sing it softy to her as a child after she killed a chibi-chan. Since Crona was usually crying after she killed something her mother had told her to, Medusa rocked her while singing it, saying that it was good to kill things, take their souls, to gain power… Shuddering at the memory, Crona started to sing the song again.

"_Os iusti_

_Meditabitir_

_Sapientium_

_Et lingua eius_

_Loquetur indicium_

_Beatus vir qui _

_Suffert tentationen-"_

Suddenly there was a soft tap on the door, interrupting Crona's calming song. Crona sighed quietly, muttering to herself, how many times has someone knocked on her door in the past two days? Well, she couldn't just leave them standing in front of her door; she had to let them inside, not just left hanging out there. What if it was something important? No, probably not. Sighing again, Crona closed her eyes; after all of what happened that day and yesterday, she was exhausted.

"It's open, you can come in," she whispered quietly, but loud enough to be heard from outside the door.

Crona heard the click of the door opening and raised her head and eyes up slowly as it inched open. Crona expected to see Maka or Patty, maybe even Sid, but who it was shocked her.

She stared at the familiar and scary boy before her, with his black suit, with the three white stripes on the black background of his hair, and the staring yellow eyes. Her breathing and heart rate speed up, and her eyes widened with horror. Fearfully, her gaze went to his hands, the ones that had abused her so painfully. Crona was scared of what he was here for, was he here to hurt her again? This boy with the yellow eyes was glaring down at her with such intensity, that her instincts told her to be prepared to run. This boy scared her fiercely, he was almost as scary as Medusa. Crona saw that his hands clenched whenever he looked at her. The only reason Crona could think of for him doing this was that he most likely wanted to kill her, and he probably wanted to do it with his own bare hands.

Looking into the eyes filled with hatred again, Crona quickly stood up, pressing herself against the wall, locking her knees; she was readying to defend herself if necessary. Though, when he started to walk toward her, she began to tremble.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Death the Kid let the door swing open slowly. As it led into the room, he almost expected it to reveal severed heads and limbs on the floor, but when the door opened fully, he saw that the stone room was plain and bare of anything like accessories and extra things. It wasn't furnished other than a bed, dresser, and a sink, though the sink wouldn't really count as furniture. He stepped into the stone room, thinking that the area looked more like a dungeon cell than a room. With thinking that, he thought the Demon Sword deserved such an uncomfortable space to live in.

Tearing away from his thoughts of hatred, he looked for the Demon Sword. At first he didn't see the Demon Sword, but after looking around the room, he saw it huddled into a ball in one of the corners. Kid watched the Demon Sword's eyes slowly rise up to his, apparently not expecting it to be him to be in its room, the Demon Sword quickly shot up from the ground pressing itself against the wall, eyes frightened, trying to hold a defensive position. Staring at the thing swelled up hatred into his heart, he realized that his hands were in tight fists, and tried to unclench them. Seeing that this may keep him from trying to kill the thing, he left his hands be.

Thinking to himself, Death the Kid told himself to keep calm, to try to not do anything he would regret. When Kid stared to head in the Demon Sword's direction, the thin Devil Sword user began to whimper. The way it trembled made Death the Kid think of a rabbit being cornered, scared and weak, about to be eaten by the strong and powerful wolf. He was still several meters away from the Demon Sword, when the evil little black thing named Ragnarok popped out of the its back.

"What do _you_ want, bastard?" the small black creature asked.

"I came to apologize to you, Demon Sword, as well as to you Ragnarok." Kid grumbled reluctantly.

The Demon Sword's eyes looked at him with disbelief, "Y-you did?"

He gave a curt nod; Ragnarok narrowed his X pupil eyes skeptically, the small shinigami had a stern expression and there was a faint look of hatred behind his expression, but he seemed composed. Ragnarok didn't want this boy, Shinigami's son or not, to be near his master, not after the way he had treated Crona so harshly. But he knew that even if he opposed to the idea, either the shinigami or Crona would ignore his opinion. Suspicious and untrusting, Ragnarok went back inside his meister's back without holding out an argument, knowing it would do no good.

The Demon Sword lowered itself and sat back down on the stone floor, curling itself back into its ball. Its blue eyes glanced up from its knees up to Kid, waiting for him to say what he was going to say. The way Death the Kid glowered made the Demon Sword shrink back a bit. He wanted to look away from this evil creature, so he let his eyes look away, but he grudgingly stared back up at it once again. Kid set his mind, locked himself in his stiff position, and began to speak.

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Crona stared up at the shinigami who was glaring down at her with hatred. Being with him was like being with Medusa again; the same harsh treatments and cold, hard, yellow eyes. Crona felt a deep fear as she realized that the boy before her had the same eyes as her mother had, with the same colored irises and severity.

He stopped a few feet away; he looked to the floor, and unwillingly back into her eyes. His hands clenched and unclenched several times before he finally spoke.

The words rushed from his mouth, his eyes wandered from her again, relieving her from his harsh stare, "I apologize for hurting you before, Demon Sword. I realized that I should not have harmed you like that. Do you accept my apology?"

The shinigami named Death the Kid looked back down at her, waiting for her to respond. Crona bit the edge of her bottom lip, she squirmed, she was feeling very uncomfortable. A boy who would rather have her dead was apologizing to her for hating her when he had a good reason for doing so.

After a moment of silence, she saw that Death the Kid was getting a bit impatient. His hand started to twitch forward, as if wishing to strike at her, and he probably wanted to. Crona tried to calm herself by laying her head onto her knees, breathing in the soft scent of the fabric on her dress. The familiar aroma of cotton relaxed her slightly, enough to answer the small shinigami.

"I accept your apology…" Crona whispered softly not lifting her head up.

Death the Kid's lips turned down, "Now that I've got that over, I wish to discuss something over with you."

Crona raised her head looked up at him with confusion, what did he want to talk about?

Those yellow eyes were set into deep strictness, "Just because now we have a truce, it doesn't mean that I'm going to be your friend. I don't trust you, not in the slightest; I'm doing this for the rest of my friends, not you. I'm telling you this now because I don't want to give you the wrong impression that I'm going to be friends, talk, and laugh with you. I know that you're putting up this act for Medusa's last death wish."

Crona's eyes widened with shock, "What? No, that's not-"

"Don't try to tell me wrong," he told her sharply, "For now I'll let you go, let everyone have their good memories about you. I know that you don't care about any of them, only wanting to gain their trust so you can betray them, and I'll ignore that fact. But once I see you advance with your sinful and destructive plots, I _will_ kill you."

Crona stopped mid-breath. No one would forget her past or let her herself forget it either, and the shinigami in front of her seemed like he would never forgive her. Everyone would hang on to those things forever, and Medusa's commands for her to kill the innocent would shackle her down for eternity.

When tears started to slide down her cheeks, the shinigami turned away from her. Trying to hold back her tears, she silently stood up. Death the Kid swiveled his head back to glare at her back at her, but she didn't falter. She hesitantly walked over to him; she wanted to explain everything, so that he wouldn't hate her; maybe he would just forgive her after she explained. She was hoping for the best, but her shoe caught one of the loose stones, making her fall into the shinigami's arms. They both froze for a moment, but Kid reacted quickly, shoving her and sending his right fist in her direction. The impact made her fall to the floor, landing hard on her back. Groaning, she sat up, supporting herself on her hands. The fist had caught her mouth and blood was dribbling down her lip. When her vision fell upon the boy above her, he looked away with an expression of revulsion and the knuckles on his fist had black blood smeared on them.

Kid was enraged that the thing had touched him to such an extreme extent, but providentially his reflexes sent his fist at the Demon Sword. It had fallen to the ground on its back, hitting the floor with a hard _thump_. When it sat up, thick black liquid that was running from its mouth. Death the Kid realized that it was blood; he had forgotten that the Demon Sword had black blood. Another feature that makes it a monster, an evil creature placed inside another; the Demon Sword was one of the most messed up things he had ever seen, even more than the pharaoh he had encountered at the Anubis. Not only asymmetrical, but just a monster itself. Its dirty blood was smeared across some of his knuckles, this disgusted him as well, it had soiled him and he had to sanitize himself. Giving it one last glare, he put his hands in his pockets, and he out the door, letting it close with a dense hollow _thud_.

Crona listened as Death the Kid's footsteps faded away, and choked sobs formed in inside of her throat. The boy was so violent with her; she only wanted to forget her past. Instead, this person was making her even more miserable than she wanted. Hiding her head in her arms, she began to cry. Crona's chest was heaving with her sobs, soaking her finally dry dress again with new tears. Her whole body was shivering, the room wasn't cold, but she felt like she was frozen on the inside. Even with Ragnarok boiling inside her veins with rage, she felt as if she was being iced over.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Death the Kid gritted his teeth when he heard the hard sobs from behind the metal door. Kid felt that there were only two reasons for the Demon Sword to cry. One, it was putting on another one of its acts, or two, it was devastated that he figured out its plans. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and stared at them. They had now assaulted the Demon Sword twice, and he felt no guilt. He tried to wipe the blood off of him, but it would not disappear. He shoved his right hand back in his pocket and violent thoughts were going through his head as he walked farther away from the door. He was imagining so many ways to kill that beast, but he knew he could act upon none of them. It was foolish how his father had thought that thing should be in his school; it deserved to have been abandoned after its mother died.

'No, it would've just taken more souls,' Kid thought, 'It should have been killed.'

Kid walked silently down the halls, keeping his eyes low. He passed only a couple of faculty members on his way, respectfully saying hello to all of them. Kid was heading back to his house, and he dearly hoped that neither of the sisters were there, since they were both pissed at him.

Once Kid was out of Shibusen, he looked at the red sky. Now if the bitch Demon Sword and its mother didn't exist, the sky would still be light blue, the sun laughing. Tearing his eyes from above, he held his hand out face down in front of him; it was a while to his house, so he thought he should ride his skateboard.

"Beelzebub," he whispered.

His skateboard appeared in front of him and he stepped onto it, the skateboard flew smoothly through the air, having him soar high above the ground. He tried to sort out everything and clear his thoughts, but everything was too jumbled. He gave up trying to concentrate and think and just let the wind soothe him. When he arrived at the grand doors of his home, he wondered if he was going to have to be cautious. Both Liz and Patty most likely want to beat the crap out of him, and even more if Patty told Liz about him abusing the Demon Sword, which she probably is going to or already did. He cautiously opened the door and went in, stepping on the tile floor carefully to not make any loud noise.

The house was still quiet after listening silently, relieved that he was safe, Kid walked around the large house. Everything in the house was asymmetrical and messy; Patty and Liz were still waiting for the moment he would fix everything. Kid ignored it all; he shouldn't be worrying about things like that, not with the revival of the Kishin and the Demon Sword present.

Death the Kid walked the long halls, peering into each of the rooms, to see if Liz or Patty were possibly there. He knocked on their doors, making sure of their absence, when no sound was in reply he started to worry less. Though he was quite sure that no one but himself was in the mansion, he couldn't stop from being unsure. He only stopped searching for the twin pistols when he arrived to his room. He opened the door and walked onto the thick black carpet, he took off his shoes, setting them lightly near the door. Walking over quietly, he sat on the edge of his white-sheeted bed, the black comforter not there. Leaning his head back, he wondered if the Demon Sword would follow his orders of putting on the façade of being friends with him.

He glanced around his room, instead of seeing it in its usual neat, uncluttered, symmetrical-ness; it was asymmetrical, and messy with things thrown everywhere.

'So apparently Liz and Patty have gotten here as well.' Kid thought, 'They must have done it when I was waiting for them in the kitchen.'

Books were lying sloppily in the bookcase, his bed was wrinkled and the edges of the sheets were undone, the black comforter was on the lying haphazardly on the ground along with bits of trash. He sighed, shaking his head at the disarray, and started to pick things off the floor so he wouldn't trip over them later. Kid put all the papers that were scattered across the carpet on his desk.

'They sure did make sure to touch everything.' he thought.

Suddenly remembering something, Kid panicked and rushed to the bed. He quickly slid on his knees to the ground, the friction making him feel some stinging heat on his knees. He pulled up the black and white skirt of the bed and searched frantically. Hiding in the darkness, there was a black box to camouflage against the shadows. He quickly slid it out from under the bed and yanked off the lid. He sighed in relief when he saw his possession was still there, resting peacefully inside, and lifted the photo album from the box. Holding it carefully, Kid sat back down on his bed and opened the cover.

A young woman looked back at him, a warm smile on her face. Her mid-back length bleach hair was pulled back with a black ribbon, a few strands brushing her face, and her tanned skin tone brought out her soft gray eyes. She was wearing a knee length white dress that had a black belt wrapped around her waist. She had on black flats with small white flower designs on the sides. She was sitting on a bench sideways, her back leaning against one of the armrests, her legs brought up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. Roses were overflowing the bench; some of their petals were on her body, some of them in her hair and on her dress.

It was the only picture in the entire album. Even though Kid knew he'd never put in another photo, he kept the picture in the album. Kid stroked the border frame of the picture, it was the only one he had of his mother. To be honest, it was the only picture there _was_ of his mother. He'd never met her before; she died only a few days after his birth. Because she was only human and his father was a shinigami, it was only predictable that she would die with his child, even if she hadn't had a child, she would have died before his father.

Kid always looked at this picture when he was in a stressful situation. A lot of times when he asked his father he never got any solution, only a statement to avoid the question, but whenever he looked at this picture he seemed to get the answer he so dearly needed. Kid lowered himself down onto his back, looking up at the picture, the way the light hit the picture from above made the photo seem realistic.

When he looked up he noticed that the black blood still stained his knuckles. He glared at the blemish on his skin, but he averted his eyes from the Demon Sword's blood and set his attention back up to his mother. He would have to wash his hands very harshly to get the black liquid to vanish; he would do that later, in a few minutes. Now, staring into gray eyes of his mother's picture, he determined on asking his question. His eyes lowered shut, concentrating on the darkness. He ran the thought quickly through his thoughts and spoke aloud.

"Mother," he whispered, "What do I do about the Demon Sword?"

Death the Kid's eyes opened slowly to glance back up to his mother.

And for the first time, he found no answer.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Crona was trying to figure out what she should do while her tears made small rivers on her cheeks. Her breathing slowed and she tried to calm down. Ragnarok had attempted at comfort again, but when he knew he was being no help, he just patted her head repeatedly, nice and soft. After a while of doing that he slipped back inside of her, and made her blood circulate rhythmically, calming her some. She was shifting through the thoughts in her head, trying to figure out what she should do that wouldn't make the small shinigami angry with her. Crona felt that it would be hard to please Death the Kid, especially since he hated her so much. After some thought she decided that she would do what Death the Kid would probably want both of them to do, put on a smile and pretend that one of them didn't want the other dead.

Ragnarok had commented that she shouldn't be crying right now, she should be angry, wanting to have revenge on the shinigami. Though, even as she though about Death the Kid's rash actions, she couldn't find any emotions of hate toward him. Somehow, when she thought of him, she got a painful feeling in her abdomen. No, not painful, it wasn't agonizing enough to be pain; it was an uncomfortable sensation that was in her stomach. It was the feeling of empty aching that was fluttering inside of her; maybe it was a sign from Ragnarok telling her to stop thinking about him.

Tears were still pouring down Crona's cheeks even though she had already calmed down. Crona bit down on her lip, she had to stop crying, it would get her nowhere, Medusa had always scolded her when she started to cry when she was smaller. There was another thing she had to stop doing, she had to stop comparing the present to the past, Medusa was dead. No more scoldings, no more punishments, no more experiments, no more orders, no more direct instructions of how to lead her life… Crona tried to push the memories of her life with her mother away, but she couldn't, how do you forget someone that had leaded you your entire life?

Suddenly, Crona thought she had heard something from outside, interrupting her thoughts. She tilted her head to the side and listened quietly, but she didn't hear it again, so she ignored it. Sighing, she laid her head against the hard wall and closed her eyes, resting.

"Geko."

Startled, Crona spun her head to the noise. Searching frantically to whomever it was that appeared in her room. Then she saw the familiar shape of a frog on her windowsill, recognizing whom it was slowed Crona's heart speed by a bit. It was obvious that it was Eruka, with the two dots on the edge of each side of her mouth. The frog seemed to be happy.

"Eruka?" Crona asked.

"Ah, Crona, you're awake!" she exclaimed, "I was hoping you were."

Crona pushed herself off the ground and stood up. Since she had been sitting for a while, she walked over to the bed wobbily. She stepped up onto the mattress and stood on it so she could talk to Eruka without straining her neck up, "Umm, why were you hoping I was awake?"

"Oh, since Medusa is dead, all of the witches wanted to throw a celebration party!" she whispered excitedly.

Crona raised her eyebrows, "I didn't realize that many people hated my mother to the point they would throw a celebration over her death."

Eruka rolled her eyes, "That's just because you blocked the outside world away from you and you never noticed."

Crona nodded, "I guess so.

Suddenly Crona realized something, and asked the frog a question, "Wait- how'd you know I live here?"

"Oh, since we both still have Medusa's snakes in our bodies, I can sense you. And I guess if you wanted to, you could sense me. I really don't know how the snakes are still alive, though." Eruka explained.

"That's kind of creepy," Crona stated.

"Well anyways, I wanted to invite you to the party! I know that out of everyone, you probably hated Medusa the most." Eruka chirped.

"Oh, but how would I get there? I can't leave the room, well I think I may be allowed, but I'm not willing to take that chance." Crona told her.

Eruka thought for a moment, "Well, you could jump out the window. Free is out there, and I'm sure he could estimate where you'd fall and catch you."

"And if he doesn't?" Crona questioned.

"You have black blood, you'd be fine!"

Crona weighed the chances of Ragnarok hardening her blood fast enough to be able to do that.

Ragnarok got snippy at that, 'Are you _doubting_ me! I could harden the blood at the speed of light! Don't be stupid!'

"Oops, sorry, Ragnarok.' Crona apologized.

'Yeah, you'd better be.'

Eruka stood at the edge of the windowsill and encouraged for Crona to follow her, with a leap, Eruka disappeared from sight. Crona hesitated, but she hooked her hand around on of the two bars on her window and climbed a couple feet of wall onto the windowsill. Crona was glad that she was so thin, if she was a healthy weight, it would have been difficult for her to slide in between the bars of the window. Now sitting on the edge of the stones, Crona kept her grip on the rusted metal bar and looked down. Free's thick body was easy to spot and Eruka, now back in her regular form, was beside him, looking up at her expectantly. Eruka nudged Free, turning his attention to the thin body so high in the air. Free glanced up to Crona, seeing her doubt.

Crona closed her eyes tight and took a deep breath; reopening her eyes she pushed herself from the ledge. The rush of wind made her hair whip into her face, making it hard for her to see. She saw Free rush over to where he expected her to land, waiting to catch her. Surprisingly, it was a long fall, and while she was falling, Ragnarok made a comment through her thoughts.

'You're an idiot.'

Confused, she wondered what he was talking about, but then she felt the familiar sensation of a ripping in her spine. Two great black wings unfolded from her back, flapping as they spread in the night sky. Her wings cut through the air, landing her gracefully onto the Earth.

"Oh, yeah," she realized, "I can do that."

Eruka blinked, "I guess we all kind of forgot about that, huh?"

"No, duh." Free muttered in his gruff voice.

"Hey, look, you forgot too." Eruka sniffed.

Crona put her wings away while Eruka and Free argued, and smiled, 'Thanks, Ragnarok.'

Ragnarok didn't respond deciding to join the little group. Appearing on top of her head, he raised one small fist in the air, "Whoo, party!"

Eruka and Free froze, stopping their unimportant quarrel short, and looked up at the small blob atop the pink meister's head. Eruka froze and realized what it was.

"R-Ragnarok…?" she tested.

"Yeah, what?" the little thing answered.

A smile spread across Eruka's face and she started to giggle, "_Awww_!"

Free at first gave a chuckle, but then he let out a booming laugh, joining Eruka, "Wh-whoah! Dude, you got _SMALL_!"

Crona felt her lips turn up, though she knew that doing that would only get her in trouble. Ragnarok steamed on top of Crona's head, growling at all of them.

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" he exclaimed, "BLAME THAT DAMN STUPID MAKA ALBARN! _SHE'S_ THE ONE WHO DID THIS!"

Free was clutching his side, and his laughter starting to subside, "Rag, it's okay. I knew that you got small because Eruka said she felt the change in Crona's anatomy, but… wow."

Crona looked over to Eruka, confused with Free's choice of words.

"He means that because of the snakes in our bodies, I felt the form of your body change." Eruka explained in a way of words Crona could easily understand.

'Wow, I never knew Medusa's snakes were that powerful, to be able to feel the change in one's body system.' Crona thought.

'Well, Medusa was one powerful bitch of a witch,' Ragnarok, who had slipped back inside of her due to embarrassment, responded.

'Yeah,'

Crona looked at Free and Eruka, who were snickering about Ragnarok, studying them. Neither of them changed much in the time Crona had last seen them. Eruka was wearing her wide dress, it was a bit stained by dust and the white circles on the black fabric were faded. Her orange hat was limp by the abuse it had received while trying to revive the Kishin Asura, and her white boots were scuffed and worn. Eruka looked a bit paler, probably from stress, and her hair was unkempt, its usual shiny glow dull.

Crona studied Free next, he, too, did not change that much. The brown spikes of his hair had dust and sand caked in it, the explosion Asura caused made dirt and dust fly everywhere. His thick muscles bulged from under his black shirt, the prison jacket around his waist. The white of both his prison pants and jacket were stained also by dust, dirt, and sand. She was going to look at his Devil's Eye next, but his eyes were closed while he was talking to Eruka, probably making a point of something. His feet were bare, as usual, but then Crona's eyes spotted a detail she hadn't noticed up until then.

"Hey, Free, you got your chain ball off your ankle." She pointed out.

Looking down at his now bare unchained ankle, Free grinned, "Yeah, got it off when the Kishin revived. The giant impact made the chain snap."

Crona looked to Eruka, "Where are the rest of the Mizune family?"

Eruka sighed, "They decided to stay home in honor of the oldest Mizune sister's death."

"Ah," Crona responded.

Eruka clapped her hands to get all of their attentions, "Okay, lets go!"

Free glanced toward Eruka, then he started to walk a couple feet away in the opposite direction of her. Crona wondered where he was going, but she wasn't too concerned because he eventually stopped to the point where you could only see his silhouette. Crona put her attention to Eruka again.

"Where's the party at?" Crona asked.

Eruka turned to her, "The witch's meeting castle, where else?"

"How are we going to get there?" Crona asked.

Eruka pointed toward Free, he was leaning on something big, "We're using that motorcycle Free stole."

Crona looked back at Free and recognized that the big shape he was leaning against as a motorcycle. Immediately, she rushed over to it to inspect it, brushing her fingers across the smooth metal. It was nice and sleek, obviously meant to catch attention, the paint glowing even in the dim light of the red night sky. Though Crona didn't have time to gush over its beauty, she was too concerned with the fact that the design and model was the same as Soul's motorcycle. Silently praying that it was some one else's motorcycle, she squeezed her eyes shut and leaned her head to the license plate.

'Please don't be Soul's, please don't be Soul's, please don't be Soul's…' she thought.

Slowly opening her eyes, the four gleaming red letters that shone at her from the license plate made her heart drop.

S-O-U-L.

"Is something wrong with the bike?" Free's voice suddenly asked.

Crona spun her head up to him. She quickly shook her head, hoping he wouldn't notice her panic.

"No," she lied.

"Good, since Eruka can't get out her Otama Jackson and I can't use my wolf form without releasing Soul Protect, we needed another form of transportation."

"Ah," Crona said, "but I can use my wings."

"No." Eruka answered.

Crona looked at her, "Why not?"

"It would attract too much attention."

"Oh," Crona responded.

Eruka gave a Crona a small push toward the seat of the motorcycle. Free was mounted on the bike, and he was waiting for them to get on. Hesitantly, Crona lifted herself onto the motorcycle, swinging her leg over onto the other side. Crona was glad her dress was made out of this particular fabric; it allowed her to move and spread out like no other dress would.

Eruka hopped onto the place behind Crona, bouncing excitedly. She reached over and grabbed Crona's hand, putting a small something in her palm. Crona looked down and saw that she had been given a rubber band. Confused, she gave Eruka a questioning glance, whom of which was tying her hair back.

"It's so you can out your hair up." Eruka explained, "These wind speeds get pretty bad and it can mess up your hair pretty bad."

Crona was inwardly smiling at Eruka's concern, "But my hair is really short, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Eruka shrugged, the black dots at the edge of her mouth turning down, "Okay, Crona, but I'm just saying these winds kills your hair."

Free looked back to both of them, "You two ready?"

When they both nodded, Free looked down specifically to Crona, "Hold on tight."

Crona wrapped her arms around Free's thick waist, having a hold that would cut off the circulation of a normal person, but Free wasn't a normal person. The motorcycle growled and started to zoom down the stone road into Death City.

The wind rushed through Crona's hair, blowing it away from her face. Ragnarok came out of her back, letting his overly large tongue flap out behind him like a dog sticking his head out of a car window. Crona held on to Free tightly, the motorcycle had so much power and speed, she wondered how this wasn't fast enough for him.

'Well he is a werewolf.' Ragnarok said to her through his thoughts, not wanting to interrupt his tongue-flying-through-the-air fun by talking.

'True,' Crona thought back to Ragnarok.

Crona thought about that. Free probably was used to tremendous speed being both a werewolf and a witch. So it was probably normal for something as fast as a motorcycle to be slow to him.

Crona didn't expect any good sights, what with half of Death City being destroyed, but shockingly, there were several things open and signs glowing. Bright neon signs were in several stores, catching Crona's eye. They sped pass a bookstore, the lights still on inside. Knowing that Maka was very obsessive with books, Crona thought that Maka would most likely drag her to a bookstore one of these days.

After a few more minutes, the lights started to thin out when they left the downtown area, only streetlights, houses, and a few small shops spread on the sides of the road. But even after a while, those started to move behind them as they drove out. The buildings started to spread out as well as they started to enter the outskirts of Death City, the lights were all gone, the only luminance came from the moon.

"Finally, those lights were too bright for my taste." Free sighed thankful.

The carefully smooth roads were becoming narrower and bumpier the farther they drove. Then they came across a faded sign with a lamp over it to be eligible that said: '_You are now exiting Death City_.'

When they left the Death City limits, the paved road slowly turned into a dirt path, leading into the endless desert of Nevada.

Sand spat behind the motorcycle, the wind making the grains mix into Crona's hair, and making her cough when she accidentally swallowed dust. Ragnarok started to cough as well when chunks of sand began to get caught in his mouth. After realizing that there was no way he could have his fun without having sand flying into his mouth, Ragnarok went back into Crona's spine.

They went on for a good hour or so, none of them speaking a word. The sand shooting at them prevented any conversation. Crona spotted a few small animals like lizards and kangaroo rats run across the large vast land and saw a cactus every few minutes or so.

As Crona squinted in front of them through the sand, she could see small black objects appear on the horizon. When they grew nearer, Crona recognized them as houses.

Free slowed down a bit, lowering the growl of the engine, as they passed through the rows of small houses so he wouldn't wake too many people up. The houses resembled cottages that were made of brattled wood and clay. Crona recognized this part of the desert, this was were she used to live with Medusa before. Crona ran the names of the other witches who lived there through her mind when they passed their homes. Crona immediately recognized her familiar home; its door stood slightly ajar, it looked unkempt for.

'No,' she thought, 'It's not my home anymore.'

She named more houses of witches, remembering how her mother had overpowered every single one of them. Crona felt relived when they finally left the string of homes behind, but stayed stiff in her seat. Eruka and Free seemed relaxed and at ease, they apparently weren't fazed by the area.

After a few, miles of the bare desert, Crona looked up at the sky because of boredom. But when the grinning moon began bleeding when it looked at her, she looked away trembling. Free glanced back at her questioningly, but returned to keeping his eyes forward when Crona mumbled something that sounded like '… I just don't know how to deal with this…'

Crona looked to the forward distance and saw something else. A big formation appeared in the moonlight, it was far away on the horizon. As they grew nearer the formation became an outline of large boulders of rock and stone. They reached high into the air; the rocks surrounded an ancient weathered down castle. The closer they came, the cold temperature of the desert night dropped lower, and fog seemed to appear on the border edges around the castle.

The outline of a big castle and its enormous boulders of stone stood out in the unadorned desert. The brass bell was silent in the tower of the ancient castle. Crona softly breathed the chimes of the bell ringing under her breath; usually whenever Medusa and she came the bell was bellowing its deep toll. Crona felt odd coming to this place without her mother, it was witch territory, and she was not a witch. There was no one to protect her, she was only human, sort of, and the witches wouldn't want her there. Medusa had only protected her because Crona was her experiment. But no one would protect her now, a weak, worthless, dependant human.

Crona raised her head from Free's back to look up at him; she had to squint to keep sand from getting into them. His big figure was set in concentration to get to the witches' mass castle, his shoulders hunched so his arms could reach the handlebars. It was possible that Free or Eruka would keep her safe, but what if they didn't? Crona felt Eruka shift behind her; probably excited about the freedom she had now from Medusa. Crona knew that Eruka thought of her as a friend, but was she willing to defend her?

While Crona thought deeply about the chances of the two with her protecting her, they were riding through the vast boulders looming above them. It was like a maze to get to the front of the crumbling castle, but Free managed to find his way. Free slowed the motorcycle to a stop in front of the castle's antique doors and the furious sand stopped spitting harshly at them. Immediately after the engine was turned off, Eruka jumped off the motorcycle with a giddy hop, stretching out her arms and legs, and let her hair down, swinging it in the air.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, "We're here!"

Crona looked up at the massive aged castle, it seemed intimidating and it gave her memories filled with fear. Free had gotten off the motorcycle as well, leaving Crona the only one on it. He was cracking his joints with audible pops, making Eruka wince and say 'Ew, gross.'

Free looked back at Crona with a curious look. She was still positioned in the middle of the motorcycle seat; her knees were clamped together nervously, her arms hanging limply to her sides, and her head was titled upward. Free followed her gaze and realized that she was staring up at the witches' mass castle.

Eruka seemed to notice this, too, so she went over to Crona and placed a hand on her arm. Crona jumped and swung her head around to look at Eruka, fear obvious in her eyes. Eruka looked at her in concern, trying to figure out what was wrong. Then she realized that the witches' castle probably brought back horrible memories to the young non-witch. Eruka stared into Crona's eyes with her black ones, but instead of looking into a deep blue, Crona's eyes were a pale blue-grayish color due to fear.

"Crona, I know that this place scares you, but nothings going to try to kill you." Eruka tried to comfort her.

The frightened eyes wavered slightly, wanting to believe her. Eruka thought that she would have to try harder to get Crona to trust her. So she set her black eyes to Crona's blue-gray ones and spoke calmly and soothingly.

"It's okay, Crona. We won't let anyone hurt you." Eruka said softly trying to reassure her.

Crona's pale eyes looked at her skeptically, "R-really, y-you'll pr-protect me?"

Eruka grinned; she was glad she had gotten Crona to trust her more, and bobbed her head, "Geko."

A small relieved smile lightened Crona's depressed face, and her pale eyes darkened to their usual deep blue color. Eruka stared at this unusually cheerful emotion upon Crona's face; Crona had usually been so depressed. Eruka seemed frozen, seeing a smile for the first time on the disheartened teenager. Even though the smile was small, it was enough to startle the frog witch. The closest she had ever been to seeing Crona happy was when the Demon Blade user was content with not being scolded by Medusa, but never true happiness.

Crona's beaming emotion settled back to its usual sad attire and the teenager looked at the frog with curiosity. Eruka noticed Crona's questioning look and just shook her head, making Crona wonder what had been on the frog witch's mind, but she decided that it probably wasn't vital.

Crona struggled to get her leg over the motorcycle, so Eruka helped her swing her leg over. Crona set both of her feet on the uneven sand and stood up, keeping herself up by having a hand on the motorcycle. When she took a few steps, she wobbled and tripped. Eruka caught Crona and supported her so that it'd be easier to walk.

"I must have been sitting on that motorcycle for a long time." Crona muttered.

Crona ran a hand through her hair, wincing when it hurt, 'I suppose Eruka was right. Wind and sand together does kill your hair' She thought.

As Eruka was leading a stumbling Crona, Free offered to carry the thin swordsman into the castle, but Eruka declined the offer quickly. When they approached nearer to the castle's large doors, Crona thought of something. She looked up to Free; he was to the right of her, strolling slowly with them to not get ahead.

"Um, Free?" she asked.

Free looked down to her, "Yeah?"

She avoided looking into his eyes; his Devil's Eye was glowing in the moonlight, "You're not coming with us are you?"

He raised his eyebrows, he seemed amused and offended at the same time, "What, you don't want me to come?"

Crona cocked her head to the side, "Well. Wouldn't it be bad since you took Madam Maaba-sama's…?"

Free realized what she was saying, he chuckled and winked his Devil's Eye, "Naw, I can go in."

Crona turned to Eruka, of whom she was still leaning on, "How?"

Eruka's black eyes locked with Crona's. Crona became scared, they were emotionless, but they were also grave, "Madam was killed."

Crona dug her heels into the rough sand and stopped suddenly, staring wide-eyed at the solemn witch. Eruka's mouth was set in a straight line; the dots at the edge of her mouth perfectly align. Crona slowly lifted herself from Eruka's supporting arms, trying to understand the emotionless eyes; Eruka bent her head to stare at the desert sand, hiding behind her hat. Crona looked up back to Free who was still grinning, his smile faded when he looked at her, but he didn't seem bothered like Eruka.

"B-but, w-what happened?" Crona asked.

Eruka looked back up to Crona, "When Kishin Asura revived, he had a battle with Shinigami, and he escaped. And yesterday, when we were planning the party for Medusa's death, he burst in and took Madam Old Witch's soul. He took witch Leila's as well, but after that, he just left. We decided since Madam was already near her death bed, that we stood still go on with the celebration, now also in honor of Madam Old Witch!"

Free grinned again and said to Crona, "So now I don't have to worry about my eye anymore, the witches all gave up once Old Witch was dead."

Crona stood shocked, "W-well then wh-who's going to lead the witches' mass ceremonies?"

Eruka furrowed her eyebrows, "We haven't yet decided about that."

Crona bit her lip, Eruka patted her arm, "Come on, there's still a Death Celebration inside. I don't want any of us to miss it."

Crona gave a small nod, "Yeah, I guess."

Eruka smiled sweetly and led Crona to the large stone building, Free strolling by them again. When they grew nearer, Ragnarok, who had been silent for quite a long while, began to stir inside of her excitedly. While Ragnarok was eager to reach the building faster, Crona was anxious. Suddenly Ragnarok began going on about if they food inside.

'They'd better have some food inside, I'm starving.' Ragnarok complained.

'Ragnarok, I don't feel you should be worrying about that.' Crona thought to him.

'Then what should I worry about?' he asked.

'Umm,' Crona struggled, 'I don't know, like how we'll survive in there.'

'You worry way too much. The idiots here just said they would look after your worthless self.' He shot.

Crona frowned, 'Yeah, but…'

'Whatever, I just want _food_!' he whined.

Knowing that arguing would get her no where, Crona replied, 'Just wait until we get there.'

When they finally appeared in front of the castle's door, Crona felt nauseated with fear. Gnawing at her lip, Crona watched as Free opened the heavy old wooden door that lead to the inside. Inside, it looked the same as it usually did, except that most of the witches had smiles on their faces and there was large table that ran across the room with food. Looking around, Crona saw some witches she'd never seen before, but a lot of them she recognized.

Eruka studied Crona in the brighter light of the inside of the castle. There were faint tear streak marks on her cheeks and her face was a soft gray with hints of pink on her cheeks. Below Crona's eyes were undried tears, and her eyes were pink. Eruka wondered if Crona had been crying previously before they got her from her new room at Shibusen, if so, what about?

"Crona, have you been crying?" Eruka asked.

Knowing that if she lied it would be dead obvious; Crona answered truthfully, "Um, yeah, I have."

"What happened?" Eruka asked.

Crona gave a brief explanation of what had happened, with Death the Kid grabbing her hair and yelling, to where he had threatened to kill her.

"Geko!" Eruka cried, "That little shinigami had better be lucky his father took you in, if he didn't I'd be bombing Shibusen right now."

Crona nodded sullenly; frightened that maybe Eruka would bomb her new home. Eruka was angered that someone had treated Crona so violently. In battle, okay, you're supposed to act violently, but after you're supposed to be allies? Even Eruka never did that, not really counting what she wanted to do to Medusa. Eruka had taken a sudden liking to Shibusen and Shinigami, what with them taking Crona in. Crona had always been like a little sister to her, ever since that time Medusa shoved the child at her.

"_Eruka, take it." Medusa ordered, tossing Crona, still a toddler, to the young witch._

_Eruka caught the small girl in her arms, "Wh-what?" _

"_I have some business to attend to and I don't need that thing in my way." Medusa said nonchalantly._

"_What business!" Eruka exclaimed trying not to frighten the shaking child she was holding._

"_I'm applying for a job somewhere that may prove worthy." Medusa explained._

"_You snake who-!" Eruka was cut short when Medusa shoved her hand into her mouth._

"_Now, now. No profanity in front of my child." Medusa whispered sweetly before she removed her hand from Eruka's mouth and walked away._

_Eruka glared after the snake witch as she walked out the door, but suddenly she heard a small whimper. Looking down, Crona was crying, tears welled up in her big blue eyes. The child looked up at the white haired woman above her, wondering why her mother had left her, again, with a random person. _

_Eruka tried to calm the frightened girl. Tears were spilling from the toddler's big blue eyes. Eruka was speaking low, saying that she wasn't going to hurt her, to just calm down. After the child seemed to trust her a bit more, Eruka sighed in relief._

_Eruka bent down to the small girl's height, looking into the shy eyes that were trying to look away, "Small snake witch, what's your name?"_

_The child's lower lip trembled, she was now clutching her left arm tightly, "M-my n-name?"_

_Eruka nodded her head; this child was different from her mother, timid._

_The girl gripped her arm more tightly, her free hand clenching into a fist, "I-I'm- my name…it is…um, C-__Crona.__"_

"_Crona…" Eruka whispered, "Such dark name for one from the Gorgon family."_

_Crona's blue eyes looked up confused, "Gorgon?"_

_Eruka returned her attention to the small snake witch, "Yes, that's your last name."_

_The child looked even more confused, "My… last name? Gorgon? Medusa-sama instructed me to respond to Crona, or Crona Makenshi if needed to in a different occasion."_

'_Makenshi?" Eruka thought, 'This little snake witch had a vocabulary, too."_

"_Little snake witch, I wonder why you would be named different from your miserable mother." Eruka pondered._

_Crona tilted her head to the side, "Snake witch?"_

'_So many questions!' Eruka thought, 'How many questions has Medusa left unanswered to this child?'_

"_Yes," Eruka said, "Snake witch. Your mother is one, so you are also. Has she taught you no magic, yet?"_

_The child seemed taken aback, "Medusa explained to me several long times ago that I cannot become a witch, that I'm not, by some strange accident, able to do magic. So she has taught me other things, to replace me being a witch."_

_Eruka stared at the child as it shuffled its feet, looking at the ground. Medusa's child could not do magic, it was not a witch? It was only on very rare occasion that witches gave birth to a non-necromantic, the last time that happened was over thousands of centuries ago. Eruka decided to ask the child questions now._

"_I-if you're not a witch and haven't been taught magic, what has your mother taught you?" she asked._

_The child looked up panicked, as if something were about get her, "Sh-she t-taught me sw-sword mastery."_

_Eruka wondered what the girl was frightened for, but abruptly the child got a pained expression on its face. Crona whimpered and tears came out of her eyes, she clutched her head and started to groan. Eruka panicked, what was wrong. Suddenly, Crona began to scream, she feel onto her knees on the floor, curling inwardly into a ball. She was covering her head with her hands and was crying into the floor, her back heaving with her deep breaths. Eruka heard an atrocious ripping sound coming from Crona, Eruka didn't know what was happening. Then, Crona's back opened, letting out a mass of black liquid. Eruka stared at it horrified. It began to take shape, arms, a chest, and a head formed from the black liquid. A small creature, about the size of Crona herself, was staring at her with its x pupil eyes. Eruka gasped and wondered what it was._

_Crona lifted herself from the ground, sniffling, tears running down her face, "I-I'm sorry. I-I'm just not u-used to it yet!"_

_The black thing began to pull at her pink hair, "You weak worthless brat! It's already been three months and you haven't gotten used to it?"_

_Crona whimpered and tried to push away the creature, "No! Stop it! Don't pull my hair! I don't know how to deal with the pain yet!"_

_The thing stopped pulling at Crona and supported itself by keeping one of its small hands gripped on Crona's head. Crona sniffed and stood up, straightening out her dress and brushing of dust. She looked up to the horrified frog witch and explained._

"_R-Ragnarok is my weapon. Medusa-sama said that since I was no good for a witch, that I should learn to be a sword meister and become a Kishin. So she put Ragnarok inside me three month ago, and I still haven't gotten used to the pain of him coming out from my back yet. He and Medusa-sama call me pathetic and weak."_

_The thing called Ragnarok looked at Eruka, "I'm this little idiot's sword. But she still hasn't adapted to the whole idea, useless thing."_

_He vanished from sight, back into Crona's spine. The small child sighed, relieved that Ragnarok was gone, and sad that she, once again, was insulted. Eruka pitied the small girl; she probably had little to no self-esteem by now. Eruka reached over and ran her hands though the girl's pink hair._

"_I don't think you're weak, you're not pathetic. I'm sure that you'll be a wonderful swordsman, don't let your ego drop too low." Eruka whispered._

_Crona's large pale eyes widened in shock and more tears spilled over, but not from sadness. Eruka held the child close to her, letting the girl play with her white hair. Eruka wondered if she should ask Mizune to help her take care of the child, but decided not to, then the child would have to get used to the idea of another person. Eruka whispered small lullabies into Crona's ear and the child clung onto Eruka's dress to keep herself from falling restfully to sleep. Eruka soothed and played silently with the child more, cooing to her and treating her with comfort that Medusa never gave._

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

**This is for Copyright purposes. The song that Crona is singing at the very beginning was **_**Lilium**_**, the theme from the anime **_**Elfen Lied**_**. And in case you want to know (which you probably don't and think you're wasting your time reading this) I like to make Kid violent. I just do, so he's going to having some "grr" thoughts (I count grr as an emotion in my vocabulary) later on in the story about Crona. Anyways, PLEASE REVIEW! OR RAGGY WILL EAT YOUR SOUL!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I kind of struggled a bit, well a lot more than a bit, to write this chapter since I've still been having that major writer's block. I have a lot of the outline so far (not totally though), but the words just aren't "flowing from my fingertips". So I'm reeeaally sorry if I update a little late. P.S. I got a review (sorry, but I'm singling people out, I'm not using their user names though) that asked if Free really hated Medusa. No, he's just accepting the fact that she's dead and sees the good opportunity at a party, so he doesn't hate Medusa. They also asked if Eruka and Free really see Crona as a friend, more than an ally. Well, Free, he sees Crona as Eruka's little acquaintance, though to Eruka, Crona really is her friend.**

**Another asked about Crona's last name, Makenshi, and asked if I was a Final Fantasy fan. To be honest, I didn't know what that was until I looked it up =P. I never knew that her last name was taken somewhere else, I just used it because it really is (TRULY!) Crona's last name. Or middle name, if her last name is Gorgon, but they never say that. I wonder why Crona's last name is different from Medusa's? **

**Anyways, if you're still reading this and you're getting impatient, then I'll get you to the story now.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater. If I did Crona would get a **_**lot **_**more screen time, also I wouldn't be writing fan fictions now would I? Also, the OCs that are mentioned in this chapter are MIIINNE! No stealy without my permission!**

…

Chapter 4

A Bit of the Past, Old Friend, and a Talk with Crona

Eruka brought herself back to the present and looked over to Crona. Instead of the small sweet child she had been then, Ragnarok and Medusa had brought her down to the depressed and sad teenager she was now. Eruka was glad that Medusa was gone and that Ragnarok had seemed to give more respect to his master.

Eruka decided that she should go socialize with the rest of the party, so she let go of Crona to see if she could walk now. Seeing that she could, Eruka was off to talk to the others, the heels of her boots clacking on the hard stone floor. Free gave Crona a wink and walked off, following Eruka.

Crona wondered if his feet got cold being barefoot, but answered herself by saying that since he was a werewolf, it probably didn't affect him. Ragnarok slithered out of Crona's back, trying to not attract attention to his now small size, and whispered to her to head toward the food table. Rolling her eyes, Crona headed toward the food table, glad that she had someone to keep her company now.

Ragnarok began to shovel food into his mouth upon reaching the area, Crona had to lean to the side so that Ragnarok could reach the low table. Before Ragnarok came, the table was nearly full, but now it was half empty, with Ragnarok still eating frantically. Crona sighed, she was just glad that Ragnarok was restricted to were she could just walk away from the table to stop him.

"Oh dear, that thing has an _appetite_." A voice said from near by.

Crona straightened up from her leaning position and look in the direction of the voice. A woman was smiling crookedly at her, it seemed as though she didn't know that the pink haired teenager in front of her was not a witch. She had low even brown bangs that skimmed her eyes; the rest of her thick brown hair was brushed back into a ponytail. Her skin was a light brown, seeming to be Hispanic. She was wearing a very deep brown tunic that reached her knees, and underneath she was wearing a long floor-length skirt of the same shade. Her eyes matched her hair, a deep brown, she was looking down to the half empty table that was attacked by Ragnarok.

"What, you got a problem with it!" Ragnarok snapped at the witch.

The witch merely looked at him, her eyes sparkled when she saw how adorable the thing was, "Aw!"

Ragnarok glowered at her, "I'm not cute!"

Crona gripped her left arm tightly, nervous about the woman in front of her. The witch was very pretty, which was probably why Free kept looking at her repeatedly when Eruka was talking with someone else. Crona began to tremble lightly, but tried to hide it from the witch.

"Um, y-yeah. R-Ragnarok eats a lot." Crona stuttered.

The witch looked back to her and cocked her head to the side, "Ragnarok?"

Crona scuffed her shoe against the floor, "Um, yeah, Ragnarok. H-he's the one on top of my head."

"Yeah, me." Ragnarok emphasized.

The witch furrowed her eyebrows, "… Ragnarok, where have I…? Oh! Crona and Ragnarok!"

Crona was taken aback, "Yes?"

The witch beamed, "I knew that you two seemed familiar, I remember now!"

Crona blinked. She didn't remember this witch at all; she did look slightly familiar though. The witch had a look on her face that seemed like confusion.

"Ragnarok has shrunk drastically I see."

Ragnarok growled, "Shut up! That stupid bookworm she-pig!"

The witch raised an eyebrow, "Are you speaking to me?"

Crona jumped in quickly, "No, no! He's just talking about a friend of mine."

The witch settled satisfied, "Oh, who's that?" she asked curiously.

Ragnarok began to speak, "Ma-"

"Oh, he's referring to my mother. She made him like this before she died, so he's really mad." Crona lied.

She was surprised that she had said that fluently, being a bad liar, but for Maka's safety, she managed. Crona knew that if Ragnarok were to say that Maka Albarn was her friend, all the witches would recognize the name and turn against her.

The witch looked convinced, "Oh. Well, Medusa's dead now, thank goodness."

Crona nodded, trying to look as though she agreed with everyone else about her mother's death. The witch suddenly realized something.

"I haven't introduced myself, have I?" she exclaimed, "So sorry, I'm Venus."

Venus held out her hand, waiting for Crona to take it. Crona grasped the warm hand and shook it hesitantly. Crona looked at Venus curiously, the name was familiar.

Then Crona remembered, "Venus! Leila's sister!"

Venus was the sister of the witch who had gotten her soul taken by Asura and Crona had just stood there not knowing. The warm light in the woman's eyes darkened grievingly and Venus hid her eyes behind her long even bangs, hanging her head to the floor. Crona panicked that she had upset the witch that was being so nice to her.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you sad!" Crona apologized.

Venus's head raised, she looked composed, but her eyes were still sad, "The lose of my sister is hard on me. Unlike you, who, I'm sure, is relieved to have your mother gone."

Crona scuffed her feet against the floor again, and biting her lip, she nodded again. Venus stood straight again and gave a smile. Crona saw that behind Venus, Free and Eruka were coming. Venus noticed Crona glancing behind her and turned to see the two people come to them.

Free and Eruka stopped to stand next to Crona and turned to Venus. Eruka gave a friendly smile to Venus, but then her expression became somber.

"Geko, it's horrible about Madam Old Witch's death isn't it?" Eruka asked.

Venus nodded sadly, "Losing both Mabaa-sama and Leila is devastating to me."

Crona cocked her head in confusion, but knowing that Eruka was only talking about Leila and Madam, Mabaa had to be Madam Old Witch's real name.

Eruka decided to change the subject of death to a happier one, and began chatting to Venus about one of the other witches getting pregnant. Venus joined in happily, seeming glad for change of subject from her sister. Free remained silent, standing silently aloof near Crona, staring intently at Venus. Crona nudged him softly with her elbow, but he didn't feel it. Crona jabbed him harder and he finally looked down to her. She gestured to Venus, looking back to him, she raised her eyebrows. Free looked embarrassed that his thoughts were that obviously shown.

He shook his head and whispered to her, "Just a pretty face."

Crona shrugged her shoulders, knowing fully well that at the moment Free was pink in the cheeks and lying. Venus was giggling with Eruka; both of them apparently were well-liked witches. Venus looked to Free and smiled. Free gruffly nodded his head back, trying to make himself unnoticeable. Eruka glanced back at Free suspiciously, seeming to frown. Eruka said a cheery good-bye to Venus and dragged Free along with her. Venus looked after them confused, shrugged, and walked away. Crona felt Eruka's jealousy; maybe Free would look past appearances one day and realize that Eruka was a nice person, well, to her allies at least.

From above Crona heard whining, when she looked, she saw that Ragnarok was reaching for a strawberry on the table. His small arms couldn't reach and he was struggling to get it, whimpering and complaining. Crona sighed and plucked the strawberry from the plate it was on, lifting it up to Ragnarok. He happily chewed on it as Crona walked away from the food table, she thought she should leave before Ragnarok ate the rest of everything else. She followed behind Free and Eruka, feeling out of place.

Eruka was chatting with everyone about their opinions and feeling about Medusa's death, surprisingly, to Crona at least, they were all optimistic to Medusa being dead. But when Eruka asked them about the deaths of Madam Old Witch and Leila, everyone became rueful, sharing memories about them. Eruka began to talk to Ishi, the witch who was pregnant.

Ishi was wearing a long gray cloak around herself, covering the red tunic designed dress underneath. Ishi had deep crimson hair that reminded Crona of Soul's eyes, it was down to her waist in a braid. Her bangs went to her collarbone; they were swept to the sides of her face. She had a startling odd shade of color for her eyes, they were a bright hot pink, but lightened shades as the irises went to the pupil in a pale floral rose pink. Her stomach was large, but smaller than a regular pregnant woman. Since witches grew slower than humans, the baby looked four months developed in human pregnancy rather than seven months in human pregnancy. The period of a witch's pregnancy lasted for six weeks, much shorter than the human nine months, and Ishi was four and a half weeks pregnant.

Eruka touched Ishi's swollen stomach, "So, who's the father?"

Ishi grinned, "Why does it matter?"

Eruka giggled, removing her hand from Ishi's stomach, "Geko, you're old-fashioned. Just because you killed the father doesn't mean that I don't want to know."

Ishi brushed a strand of one of her bangs behind her ear, "His name was Akihito. I met him seven weeks ago, Tuesday, October 5th."

"October 5th? Two days after our last Witches' Mass?" Eruka asked.

Ishi nodded her head and rubbed her stomach, "Yep. Then three weeks later the little one inside this bump was made."

Eruka smiled, "Was he attractive?"

Crona felt Free squirm uncomfortably next to her. He apparently wasn't comfortable talking about pregnancy and all that, neither was Crona though, so they shared the awkwardness and pain together. But then Crona noticed the expression on Free's face; it wasn't uncomfortable or awkward, but agitated and angry. Crona thought about what it might be to make Free agitated, but thinking about it, Crona thought that maybe Free was jealous that Eruka asked whether the man who was killed was attractive. She wasn't quite sure though, she was going to have to watch the two of them.

Ishi smirked, "Yes, he was, thankfully. Now I'll have a pretty baby."

Eruka beamed, "What's its name going to be?"

Ishi smiled and curled the hair of her bangs around her finger, "Miku, her name is going to be Miku."

Eruka furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head, "What if it's a boy?"

Ishi looked at Eruka in confusion, wondering what the frog witch meant. Then she realized seeing the smirk playing at Eruka's lips.

"Oh!" Ishi laughed.

Eruka began to giggle along with her. Crona stood in confusion and Free seemed the same way. Eruka saw them and their confused expressions. After Eruka composed herself from laughing she began to explain to her confused associates.

"You see, witches only give birth to girls, that's why it's funny. Since it's pretty much impossible for a witch to give birth to a male. The chance of a witch having a male is about one in a million." Eruka explained.

Confusion left Free as he began to understand, but Crona still seemed a bit lost, "So witches only give birth to females?"

Eruka raised an eyebrow, "Yes, if you've never noticed before."

Eruka gestured to all the women in the room, the only male Free, not counting Ragnarok, of whom was falling asleep inside of Crona. Crona felt embarrassed that she seemed dumb, but she was still confused. She looked over to Free and gestured toward him.

"But what about Free? He's male." Crona pointed out.

Eruka blinked, "I'd be scared if he wasn't."

Free snorted, "I'd be scared, too. But I'm no witch, I'm a werewolf."

Crona looked up at him in confusion, "But you're able to do magic."

Free ruffled Crona's hair with his massive hand, "Yeah, werewolf magic."

"Your able to do witches magic as well." Crona said.

Free pointed to his Devil's Eye.

"Oh…" Crona was embarrassed at her stupidity and blushed a light gray.

Eruka grinned, "It's fine, Crona. I'm sure Medusa never explained small things like that to you."

Crona nodded silently, still blushing, she was starting to feel some of the heat on her face. Eruka saw that there was sand stuck to Crona's dress and brushed some of it off. Crona stuttered a self-conscious thank-you that made Eruka smile. Suddenly, a light came to Eruka's eyes as she remembered something. She grabbed Crona's arm and dragged her in the left direction, Eruka called for Free to follow.

"W-where are y-you taking us?" Crona asked, stuttering her words from trying to catch up to Eruka's fast pace.

"Yeah," Free agreed, even he had to try to stay in rhythm with Eruka.

Eruka chuckled, "For Crona, you're going to see someone who haven't been within a while. Free, I'd like to introduce you."

Crona was confused, someone she hadn't seen in a while? She didn't know many people back then with Medusa. Eruka leaded them to the other side of the room; several witches were spaced out in a crowd, obviously around someone. When the other witches saw them, they made room for them to squeeze in.

In the middle of the crowd was a woman, she was obviously a witch the way she was dressed. She wore a tough fabric black dress, a fabric similar to Eruka's, but the wide waist was one of a regular dress. It reached right above her knees, revealing white leggings and black flats. The dress had thin straps, so the witch wore a long sleeved black turtleneck under it, the turtleneck had small designs of light gray lily pads on it. The black dress had small pink circles designed on it; it looked the same idea design of Eruka's dress.

The witch had light tan, it looked as if she had been tanner, but it faded. Her hair was the same white hair color as Eruka's, but instead of being long, it ended a little longer than her shoulders. She had sharp piercing silver eyes, which were staring at them coming toward her, that were partially hidden by her thin bangs. She overall looked older than Eruka; if a human were to look at her, they would say she was about twenty-six.

The witch walked toward them, stopping in front of Eruka and Crona, glancing back to Free for a moment, but then back to the two girls. Crona looked at the horribly familiar witch, she felt that she should remember, but she was only getting dim memories. The woman's hard silver eyes stared into Crona's blue ones.

"Crona?" the witch asked.

Suddenly, Crona was hit with clear memories of this woman before her, "L-l-Lily!"

The witch smiled.

"Hey, snob princess!"

Ragnarok had popped out of Crona's back and sneered at the woman in front of him.

Lily put a hand on her hip, "Hmph, Ragnarok. You seem even smaller than what you were the last time I saw you."

Ragnarok growled, "Aargh!"

He slipped back inside Crona with agitation, letting a stream of profanities go through Crona's thoughts. Crona frowned a bit, she had to clean Ragnarok's vocabulary.

Eruka beamed up at Lily, "Geko, it's been a while sister."

Lily smiled sweetly. "It has. And may I ask who your friend back there is?"

Eruka looked behind her and saw Free lingering behind her. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him next to her. Free looked awkward standing there in front of Lily.

Eruka gestured Free to Lily, "Free, this is Lily, my big sister. Lily, this is Free, my acquaintance."

Lily waved to Free, "Lillian Frogg at service. Nice to meet you."

Free nodded back, "Yeah."

Lily took in Free's large structure. Him being barefoot, his Devil's eye, the tattoo above his left magic eye that read _**NOFUTURE**_. She noted his thick bulging muscles, he looked solid, not to be taken too lightly. Free cocked his head to the side as he looked at Eruka's big sister. A thought ran thought his head, wondering why there were no dots at the edge of her mouth. He pointed it out.

"Hey, how come you don't have those dots on the corner of your mouth like Eruka does?" he asked.

Lily gazed up to him and explained, "The dots are, I guess you could say, the stages of your maturity. When us Frogg witches are born, they take up the space of our entire cheeks, and as we mature they get smaller and fade. Mine are gone since I'm grown, Eruka's should fade out in a couple of decades."

Free boomed a laugh and ruffled Eruka's hair like a child, "Look who's still a tadpole!"

Eruka went a bright shade of red and shoved away from Free, "Shut up!"

Lily grinned, turned to Crona, and patted Crona's head, "It seems that since I was gone you've hit your growth spurt."

Crona smiled sheepishly, "Um, yeah."

Lily smirked and turned to Eruka, "You haven't changed as much as Crona."

Eruka pouted, "The last time you saw Crona, she was six, so she's grown. I haven't, you know I hit my growth spurt two centuries ago and I hit puberty only five decades after that."

Lily shrugged, "Oh well. So how old is Crona?"

Eruka thought, "About fifteen I suppose."

Lily nodded, "Just about a century or two and she'll hit her puberty."

Crona's eyes shot up to Eruka's sister, "What?"

Eruka frowned as she looked down at the swordsman, "Your mother never explained anything did she?"

Crona bit her lip, "Not really."

Eruka sighed, "Even though you're not able to do magic, you still are the child of a witch. So your body matures and grows as a regular witch, that's why you're not," Eruka coughed, "Um, developed."

Crona blushed, her face was flooded in gray, and her face sparked in temperature, the light blush she had before were shades darker now.

'I don't know how to deal with this awkward subject.' Crona thought silently.

She sensed Free's uncomfort and awkwardness from behind her, turning around was the last thing she wanted to do at that moment. Crona didn't look at Free even when Eruka turned to him.

Eruka told him, "Free, maybe you should go hang out by the food table while we talk."

Crona didn't see his reaction, but she could tell that he agreed immediately. She kept her back to him and only saw him when he passed her to head over to the populated food table. The witches there started to talk to him, a couple started to flirt, giggling and flipping their hair. Crona saw Eruka's eye twitch in irritation as the witch stared at the scene.

Lily place a hand on her hip, "Good looking man."

Eruka swung head to her sister.

Lily rose her hands in surrender, "He's just a fine man, that's all."

"Mine." Eruka spat defensively.

Crona was startled by Eruka's rash actions. Apparently Eruka was fond of Free. Crona thought a bit on that subject, but pushed it aside to chew on some other time. Lily spoke again.

"You know I don't have anymore interest in men."

Eruka narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Yes, but that doesn't mean I don't take it literally."

Crona rose her eyebrows, Lily had said she didn't have an interest in men 'anymore', and she wondered why.

Lily sighed sadly, but spoke dramatically, "Eruka could you please tell Crona the story for me, I don't wish to speak the tale."

Eruka spoke to Crona without turning around, keeping her glare at Free and the witches, making sure nothing happened she didn't want to.

"Several decades ago, about eighty years before you were born, Lily was away from the home we lived in for a while. While she was gone, she had sent a letter that she had met the 'perfect man'. Lily spent those eighty years living in love with him. Well, the last time she came to visit, when you were six, she said that it was over between them. Ever since she's never been into men."

Lily huffed, "You made that very straightforward, not any detail at all."

Eruka shrugged, keeping her eyes intent on Free, "Well, you've never given me any 'detail'. You never even told me the man's name. So of course I don't know much about it, even if I knew 'detail', I probably wouldn't have said it in a way you'd have wanted me to."

Lily blew a strand of hair away from her eyes, "I suppose."

Crona listened to the story, she wondered what the man's name was who was in love with Lily, but she doubted Lily would tell her. Crona tapped Eruka on the shoulder, wanting to continue the subject that they were on earlier.

"Um, s-so I have the lifeline and… um, _body schedule_ of a regular witch?" Crona coughed out.

Eruka turned back to her and nodded, "Geko. Witches live very long, probably the longest next to a shinigami."

Crona squirmed, "S-so I'll hit p-puberty in a _century_."

Eruka shrugged, "Or two. I'm four hundred and twenty-four and I just hit mine two centuries ago."

Crona winced, "That sounds so… inhuman."

Eruka laughed, "Well of course it's inhuman, but I know what you mean. Old."

Crona nodded, "Um, yeah."

Eruka pondered for a bit, "Since someone like you, child of a witch that has no magic, only comes around every few eons, I don't know much else about how your anatomy works."

Crona nodded, "Oh."

"HEY!" Eruka screamed, stomping in Free's direction, angry, because one of the witches had started to lean on him.

Crona stared as Eruka spoke rapidly at the witch, who was cowering behind Free. Once the witch had backed away frightened, Eruka dragged Free with her toward them. Free obviously looked taken aback by Eruka's hasty actions. Eruka stopped huffily next to her sister, who was laughing at the little show, muttering under breath.

Most of Eruka's mumbles were incomprehensible, but Crona could only catch a few words, "… Free…. Stupid witch…Geko….. Lucky I don't… Kill…. her…. Regret that she… Flirting with Free…. Geko…"

Crona decided not to talk to Eruka any time real soon, knowing that she would most likely complain about what happened, spouting death threats toward the small witch she had encountered. Crona felt that Eruka was acting a bit violently for something so innocent. Free was standing uncomfortably behind Crona, the farthest from Eruka, unsuccessfully trying to fade into the background. Crona thought it was funny that Free, someone as massive as him, was trying to hide behind her, a thin, frail, teenage girl.

Lily's laughter subsided, the drama between her little sister and the werewolf man Free was very entertaining. She glanced at Crona, she had a small light in her eye, apparently amused by the excitement as well. Lily sighed inwardly, if only Crona realized the true potential she had.

Eruka decided to ignore Free for the moment, distracting herself by speaking to by speaking to Lily about Ishi's baby.

Lily put a finger to her chin, "I suppose I'm going to have to find a baby present."

Eruka's charcoal eyes brightened, "You're right, I'll have to look forward to that."

Free snorted, "Why do you need a present? It's just a stupid baby."

Eruka glared toward Free, her eyes hardening again, "Shut up, Free. Don't mess with me right now."

"I'm just saying it's a only a baby. You women always take small things and blow them up like their important."

A grinding sound came from Eruka, she was clenching her teeth, "Come with me, Free. Let's argue somewhere else and spare ever one else."

Free cracked his neck, "Sure."

Both of them huffed angrily to the other side of the room. Lily and Crona watched them warily, after some words being spat, they were beginning to get louder, causing some of the witches to stare at them. When Free grinned toward the witch who had been leaning on him, Eruka yanked him by his waist jacket outside.

"Ooh, that's not going to be pretty." Lily grimaced.

Crona shook her head, "No. I hope they don't get into too big of a fight. I wouldn't know how to deal with them being mad at each other."

Lily sighed, "Oh well. Hey, by the way, I'm curious."

Crona met Lily's eyes with hers, "Um, yeah?"

"Do you go to school?"

Crona froze, "Y-yeah… I do."

Lily cocked her head, "Where?"

Crona panicked on the inside, "I go to… um…"

She leaned in closer to Lily and whispered, "Sh-Shibusen."

Lily recoiled from Crona and her gray eyes flashed a piercing silver, "You what?"

Crona had tears well up in her eyes, "P-please don't be mad! I live there too. Ever since M-medusa-sama died."

Lily calmed down, "Mm, okay. Nothing I can do about it anyways."

Crona bit her lip, "I'm sorry."

Lily smiled, but her eyes were still hard, "It's okay."

Crona kept her gaze down, not meeting the frog witch's eyes. Lily sighed inwardly, how much Crona had changed. The small girl that she had known was now a tall lanky teenager.

Lily remembered when she had visited Crona for the first time when she was five; Eruka said that Medusa had told her, ordered her, to baby-sit the child and Eruka wanted Lily to meet small Crona.

_Lily knocked softly on the wooden door of her little sister Eruka's small home. Lily had been called by Eruka to meet a toddler child because Eruka was supposed to baby-sit it for a week and wanted her help. Lily leaned onto her right leg, waiting for an answer to the door. _

_When no response came she knocked again, a bit harder than the last time. Lily didn't want to just enter her sister's house, no matter if she was used to doing it to random stranger's homes. _

"_You can come in, the door's open." The familiar voice of Eruka's called out._

_Lily pushed open the wooden door, which creaked loudly, and walked inside, she saw her little sister on a worn ragged olive green couch. Eruka was holding the hands of a small girl that was sitting on her lap, the child's hands clutched onto the young witch's thumbs, trying to support herself up. The girl had uneven lavender hair that reached above her shoulders and a black dress that went to her ankles. The girl's shoes were off, the bottoms of her socks were stained with dust, the shoes were lying on the floor, beside the couch. _

_Eruka was smiling lightly, playing with the girl. Eruka turned her black eyes up to Lily's gray ones, and with her gaze, the child's deep blue eyes looked up as well. Eruka lifted the child from her lap and set her on the ground, standing up. Eruka smoothed out her dress and hugged her sister, then released her and gestured toward the little girl._

"_Geko. Lily, this is Crona, the child I'm to watch over." Eruka introduced._

_The girl named Crona looked up to Lily, her powder blue eyes wide. _

'_Weren't they a deep blue before?' Lily asked in her thoughts._

_Lily set the thought aside as she saw the child Crona shake lightly from fear and her lower lip trembled. Lily rushed down to Crona's height and petted her head, murmuring comforting words. Eruka was anxious behind her, not wanting poor Crona to cry from fear._

"_Shh, shh, shh…. It's okay. I won't hurt you." Lily whispered soothingly._

_Crona lowered her pale blue eyes, sniffling, "Um, okay…"_

_Lily chuckled, "You're a timid one aren't you?"_

_Crona bit her lip and her eyes widened. She whimpered slightly and let out a pained yelp. Lily reached her hands to the child, worried. She felt the grip of her sister's hand on her shoulder, looking up, she saw Eruka shake her head. _

"_Crona's gotten used to it. Just wait."_

_Lily raised her eyebrow, but then saw what was happening. A small tearing sound was audible from Crona, and a black blob emitted from her spine. The thing formed into a solid formation, the creature was about as big as Crona. It had a white X over its face and had spikes on it._

"_Who're you?" the thing questioned._

_Crona lifted herself from her hunched position, "I've gotten more used to it."_

_The thing pulled Crona's hair with its white hands, "Yeah, you idiot. You still got a long way to go. Medusa's barely teaching you how to release the Screech Alpha, so don't be to cocky."_

"_No!" Crona whined, trying to push the creature's hands away, "Stop, Ragnarok! That hurts, you're going to give me a bruise."_

_The creature apparently named Ragnarok hit Crona hard on the head and disappeared. Crona sniffled and rubbed her abused head gingerly._

_Crona raised her head to Lily, "Ragnarok does that all the time, sorry."_

_Lily blinked and composed herself, "Wow. Well, it was pleasant that I got to see him, but I would have rather that Ragnarok would have been a bit… nicer?"_

_Crona nodded, not looking into the woman's eyes. Lily thought that the girl was cute, with her wide powder blue eyes staring up confused and innocent._

_Lily grabbed Crona by the waist and lifted her up, causing the girl to gasp, and held the child in her arms. Lily stood up slowly holding Crona to her chest. Crona's pale eyes were wide, but gently returned to normal and darkening to a deeper color of blue. Lily rocked her, letting Crona relax, and watched her blue eyes flutter shut. Crona let her eyebrows __unfurrow__, leaving her expression peaceful. Lily lowered Crona gently onto the couch, and turned to Eruka._

_Eruka blinked, "Wow, she seemed to trust you pretty fast."_

_Lily flipped her hair, "Well, I suppose I am a charming witch at that."_

_Eruka rolled her eyes, "__Geko__. Anyways, how has your love life been going?"_

_Lily rubbed the locket necklace that was around her neck with her thumb and index finger, smiling, "Wonderful. Still madly in love."_

_Eruka sighed, "Won't you tell me his name?"_

_Lily shook her head stubbornly, "Nope."_

_Eruka eyed the locket necklace that was bright against the black and pink background of her sister's dress, "You're still wearing that necklace that 'he' gave you?"_

_Lily glanced down to the chain that was dangling from her neck, "Yep, it's been thirty years now that I've worn this necklace."_

_Eruka rolled her eyes, "Geko, out of the eighty years you've known each other." _

_Lily shrugged, "Well…"_

_They heard a deep inhaling, and they both looked to Crona, she was breathing deeply, and was curled into a little ball. Both of the sisters thought that the sight was adorable. How did such a sweet child deserve to be cursed to the torture treatment given from its mother?_

_Lily seated herself lightly beside the sleeping girl, softly brushing her fingers through the uneven lavender locks. Eruka left the room with a small 'I'll be back in a minute', leaving Lily with the child. She sighed and stroked the smooth metal of her necklace. Eruka reentered the room with two cups filled with coffee and handed one to Lily. Lily took the cup and sipped the coffee, it was black and made her shiver, the caffeine overwhelmed her._

_Eruka drank her coffee, "If I knew how kill Medusa, I would. Then I could care for Crona, instead of that evil bitch demon."_

_Lily pursed her lips, "Shame Medusa's that powerful."_

_Eruka laughed a dry laugh, "I was wondering if I could sneak in and teach Crona some magic, to think maybe she could kill her mother one day. Sadly I can't."_

_Lily raised an eyebrow, "Why?"_

_Eruka closed her eyes and let out a puff of breath, "She's an Unbecoming." _

_Lily widened her eyes, "An Unbecoming?"_

_Eruka nodded her head solemnly, "Yes."_

_Lily bit her lip, "A witch like Medusa giving birth to one who can't do magic. I'm sure she was devastated when she found that out."_

_Eruka giggled, "I would have loved to see her expression then."_

_Lily giggled too, "I'm sure."_

_Eruka sighed again, "I wish I knew more about the Unbecomings. They only come around every once in a few thousands of millions of years. I wonder why they can't do magic? Well, Medusa did have Crona with a human. Suppose that's it?"_

_Lily shrugged, "I don't know, maybe. But we'll probably never find out."_

_Eruka nodded, "You're right."_

_Lily felt bad about lying to her sister, she knew a bit about the Unbecomings. But, then Eruka would ask her about where she got the information. Lily just wasn't ready to answer that question yet. She didn't want to expose where she knew this, so many risks would appear if anyone found out._

_Lily felt something squirm near her leg, when she looked down she saw that Crona was starting to wake up. A small yawn escaped the child's lips and the wide blue eyes opened. She looked up to the witch above her and brightened slightly to see a kind expression. Lily let the child sit on her lap, which Crona did not mind, and Eruka chatted randomly about things that had been going on._

_As Lily was responding to something Eruka had said, Crona touched the locket around her neck. Lily smiled and let Crona play with it, the small girl was apparently fascinated with the way it sparkled. Eruka smiled as well, thinking the scene was cute. Crona continued to play absentmindedly with the locket as Lily and Eruka chatted, not paying attention to the conversation that she didn't understand._

_Lily chuckled at Crona, "You seem to like my necklace."_

_The child turned a light gray; Eruka had told her about that, "It's pretty."_

_Lily brushed some of Crona's uneven bangs from her eyes, "Thank you."_

Lily looked over to Crona now, similar to what Eruka had done earlier that evening, and saw that the pinkette was talking with Ragnarok. They seemed to be arguing whether Ragnarok was allowed to go to the food table again or not, which Ragnarok seemed to be winning the argument.

That was the first time they, met. The second time, the last time, was when she was six.

_Knock, knock._

_The door swung open, the familiar Eruka Frogg in the doorway, holding Crona in her arms. Crona, upon seeing Lily, waved shyly. Lily beamed and waved back, making Crona hid her face behind Eruka's hat. Lily stepped in and looked around. The room was the same as usual, the olive green couches were the same, slightly more worn, but other than that, the room was almost identical to the last time Lily visited. _

_Eruka set Crona down on the floor and patted the girl's head, "Crona seemed optimistic when I mentioned that you were coming to visit again."_

_Lily chuckled, "It's been a long year. So Crona's six now?"_

_Eruka nodded, "I don't know when her birthday is, but Medusa said that she turned six."_

"_I would think of Crona to be a winter child." Lily stated._

_Eruka shrugged, "Who knows?"_

_Eruka turned her gaze onto Lily, "Where's your necklace?"_

_Lily looked down ruefully to her bare neck, "Oh, um. I don't wear it anymore."_

"_Why?" Eruka asked, almost skeptical, "You've been wearing it for so long."_

_Lily was red faced as she avoided Eruka's coal eyes, "He and I are no longer seeing each other."_

"_What?"_

"_W-we decided to, you know, break up." Lily muttered._

"_That's horrible!" Eruka exclaimed._

'_It's more horrible then it seems, dear sister.' Lily thought, 'If I could tell you what really happened.'_

_Tears formed at the edge of Lily's eyes, "Yes, it is. But at least we both settled it through calmly."_

_Crona was gazing at the two witches above her. She didn't really understand what was going on, but she knew that Lily was saying that a man was gone. Eruka gasped, apparently it was shocking, but Crona didn't know entirely. But when Crona saw the tears shining in Lily's eyes, Crona felt bad. She went over to the witch and hugged her leg, wishing to give comfort._

_Crona felt herself being lifted up; Lily was holding her gently, smiling, though sadly. Crona laid her hand on the bare spot were Lily's shiny necklace used to be._

"_Please don't be sad…" Crona whispered almost inaudibly._

_Lily rested her forehead on Crona's, "Okay then, I won't be sad."_

_Crona blushed lightly at the closer than usual contact she got. The fact that the two witches held her kindly was shocking enough, but when they proceeded with sweet treatment, Crona was unsure. Lily lifted her forehead and placed Crona down lightly. Lily kneeled down to Crona's height, wary that what she was going to would make bad things happen._

_Lily took a deep breath, "So, where's the famous Ragnarok?"_

_The small blob appeared from Crona's back, "That's right the all famous!"_

_Eruka had informed Lily that it didn't pain Crona any more to have Ragnarok to come out, "Hey, I brought this."_

_Lily reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out two packets. Crona stared at them curiously; she knew that inside each of the small packets were two saltine crackers. Lily opened them and handed one to Crona and one to Ragnarok. Ragnarok immediately swallowed his, Lily and Eruka wondered how Crona ever got used to that, and he snatched Crona's small packet and swallowed it as well._

_Lily frowned, "Now, Ragnarok. You shouldn't do that to your meister."_

_Ragnarok snorted, "Lecturing me, huh, snob princess."_

_Lily sighed, "You may not like it, but if you were to get along with Crona, you'd probably be a lot happier."_

_She reached into her pocket again and took out another packet of crackers, "Since I knew you'd do that, I brought three."_

_She handed it to Crona and gave Ragnarok a stern stare, "Don't take it."_

_Ragnarok sighed and settled atop Crona's head, "Fine, I won't take it."_

_Crona mumbled a small thank you and said to Lily that she didn't have to worry about Ragnarok taking her food. Lily merely chuckled and patted both Crona's and Ragnarok's head._

_Eruka smiled too. She always loved it when there was the rough knock at her door and outside was that demon snake witch with Crona. Medusa would shove the child inside and state her directions of how long she would be gone. Eruka would always pick Crona up and comfort her as much as possible, trying to give her the kindness she deserved. Eruka sighed, looking at how her sister was playing with Crona and Ragnarok, laughing at the tales they both told. For once, she wished that Shibusen and Shinigami would succeed in catching a witch. Medusa. _

_Lily was listening to a story Crona was telling, about how she and Ragnarok succeeded in syncing their souls in Scream Resonance. _

_The two witches and the Demon Sword were enjoying themselves, laughing and talking. Crona was sitting on Lily's lap again, enjoying the short time the witch would visit. She kept her hand on the empty spot were Lily's necklace used to be, wondering why it made the witch cry._

_Lily felt the warmth of Crona's small hand on her neck, feeling the absence of smooth metal. Lily could tell that Crona liked the necklace, it was beautiful, it gave you an emotion of peace. When Lily took off the necklace, she felt so empty, but now it seemed as though it was still on. _

'_Child,' she thought, 'you give off such a pure and beautiful soul. If only your mother's was as sweet, then maybe people wouldn't hunt witches if they saw this kindness.'_

Lily blinked and huffed and breath. The Crona she looked at now was still losing in the argument against Ragnarok, but was hanging on longer than one would expect. Lily smiled, though without any amusement. After remembering back then and thinking of now, Lily decided something.

"Crona-chan." she called.

The swordsman stopped mid sentence of speaking to Ragnarok and turned to the witch, "Um, yes?"

Lily reached into her dress pocket and pulled something out that was thin, long, and silver. One closer examination, Crona recognized it. She gasped, she recognized the familiar necklace that Lily was holding up. The thin links that were chained together were wound gracefully, making Crona stare at it. The charm at the end of it was a locket in the shape of a flat circle. In the middle was the small design of a tadpole that was painted a deep green.

Lily handled it carefully, the metal glimmered even in the shadowy cast of the dim room. Crona thought, even though it's design was very simple, that it was beautiful.

Lily held it up and let it spin, "Remember when you were small, I used to wear this a decade ago. When Eruka let out that you were going to be here at the party, I felt I wanted to give this to you, since you liked it when you were a child."

Lily took Crona's hand and let the necklace fall into her palm. Crona curled her fingers around it and brought her closed hand to her chest.

She glanced up at Lily, her eyes happy, "Th-thank you."

Lily beamed, "You welcome. Nothing's in it though."

Crona smiled, "That's okay, it's still very beautiful."

Lily smiled back sweetly, "Put it on."

Crona opened her hand and picked up the necklace gingerly, she unhooked it and put the chain around her neck. Crona struggled to re-latch it behind her neck where she couldn't see it, so Lily had to help. Lily moved behind Crona and swept Crona's lavender locks away from her pale neck.

Lily sighed, "Your hair is soft, it's so beautiful. Especially with it's unique color."

Crona remained silent, but Lily saw the light gray and felt the heat radiating form the girl's neck. Lily grabbed both edges of the necklace and latched it together. The necklace fit nicely around Crona's neck, the charm falling on the location of her heart. The cold metal was smooth and the shiny glint of the necklace stood out in comparison to Crona forcefully plain appearance.

"You wouldn't seem too much of a jewelry person, but it looks beautiful on you."

Crona stroked the locket lightly, "It is beautiful, but I know that I don't deserve it. And I wouldn't know how to deal with people staring at it all the time."

Lily came over to Crona and played with her hair, "I swear, you have such pretty hair, if it were only even. But, Crona, you more than deserve it. And if you don't want people to look at it, just tuck it under your dress."

As Lily twiddled with one of the lavender locks of Crona's hair, Crona slid the necklace underneath her dress, the metal plopping against her bare skin.

"Thank you again, Lily." Crona whispered.

Lily let go of Crona's hair and winked, "My pleasure."

They heard footsteps approaching, turning around, they saw Free and Eruka coming toward them, they were both red faced. Crona stared at them, she figured they were red because they were mad, but as she stared at them, but they didn't look mad, they looked flustered. Eruka had her hands clenched and shaking.

"F-free says we should leave now." She mumbled.

Crona sighed and turned around to Lily, "Is the next time I get to see you going be in nine to ten more years again?"

Lily grinned, "Happily, no. I'm staying in the desert a few good miles from Death City. Ishi offered to take me in, but the way I've seen some pregnant witches…" Lily bit her lip then continued, "So I'm staying with Venus. She has room for one more since, you know…"

Though Crona felt bad for Venus, she was happy that Lily was going to be close enough to visit. Lily gave Crona a brief hug and let go.

Lily smiled, "I'll visit you a lot. But don't worry, I'll make sure that I don't her caught in the Death City or Shibusen limits."

Crona nodded and followed Eruka and Free, who were heading toward the door. She turned and gave Lily a small wave, Lily swept her hair from her face as she waved back. Crona turned her back to the witch again and stepped out into the cold desert night air, staying a meter behind her two emotional associates.

…

**A/N: Okay, I wanted to add two more little "entries" to this chapter, but since I haven't uploaded in forever, I'll just put them in one mini-chapter. I'm really sorry that I haven't uploaded; I just recently came back from a week long trip, so… Super Apologies. So, more small memories of Crona's past. Hooray for memories! Review! Or Maka will Maka Chop you! =3**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I couldn't think of a good chapter title for this one, maybe some of you guys could help me on that? If you have an idea, plz put it in the reviews, maybe I'll use it. Don't worry, I'll give you credit, too. Anyways, the mini-chapter! Since I wanted to add this to chapter 4, but… Never mind, to the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater (Though, I dearly wish I do).**

**P.S: lots of CAPS in the first part.**

…

Chapter 5:

Mini-chapter

Death the Kid was lying on his back with his eyes closed, though the light that was on above him was bright and he wanted it to be off, he didn't want to get up to turn the switch down. The photo album was resting on his chest, going up and down in harmony with the breathing rises of his body. His right arm was spread out to the side of him while he swung his left over his eyes to block out the light. His legs, from the knee down, were hanging lazily off the bed. He had taken of his coat, and now it lay on the ground in a black heap, so he was wearing his white long-sleeved dress shirt.

Going through his mind were images of his friends, memories filled with color and happy emotions flickered through his mind. He was remembering the more lighthearted times of his friendships, before the Kishin revived and the pleasant times grew somber and dull. Kid furrowed his eyebrows from under his arm, but went back to his reminiscences.

_Liz and Patty were laughing at him when he was dared to ask Tsubaki on a date and were watching him stutter and fumble over his words to Black*Star's partner. Black*Star roaring with victory after beating Soul in an arm-wrestling match, then threatening Kid that if Tsubaki accepted his date he would kick his ass (since Tsubaki heard this she gracefully declined Death the Kid's offer, he took kindly to that). Maka hitting Black*Star with her book for the threat and then comforting her grumbling and beaten weapon. Tsubaki smiling after patting Kid on the head and dealing with Black*Star's ego, blushing when her meister threw a muscular arm around her shoulders. Death the Kid's father, praising him after he completed a difficult mission, saying that he would grow up to become a wonderful shinigami. Stein picking up a crying Spirit, telling the Death Scythe to quiet down when he screamed, "MAAKAA!"_

Death the Kid smiled at these images, but his smile disappeared. Why was it that all of a sudden, with the memories of his friends going through his head, he saw the wide powder blue eyes of the Demon Sword look up at him?

Shortly after the question went through his head, an audible slam broke the silence in the house. Kid shot up, opening his eyes, and catching the photo album when it fell from his chest. Followed by the loud noise were voices, they were loud compared to the silence Death the Kid had been listening to for the last hour or so. Kid quickly set the photo album down on the bed and went to the door.

Kid creaked the door open slightly and listened. He heard the house keys being thrown on the coffee table with a sharp _clink_.

'Liz and Patty are here.' He thought, 'Crap.'

Liz spoke, her voice reaching to Kid, "That damn bastard."

Death the Kid caught his breath, was she talking about him? Did Patty say what he did to the Demon Sword? No, if Patty did that, Liz would break the door of its hinges to scream at him. He listened again and heard Patty's familiar cheery humming. Kid raised a hand to touch his cheek were Patty had punched him, the blood was dried, but it was scabbing over. Thinking of blood reminded him that her still had to wash the Demon Sword's blood off his knuckles.

He heard Patty respond to her sister's profanity, "What's wrong, Onee-chan?"

"You know what's wrong, Patty." Liz sighed.

Patty giggled, "Tell me anyways!"

Liz groaned, "The guy at the mall."

"You mean the one who worked at the soft pretzel concession stand?"

There was a loud huff, "Yes, that idiot."

Patty giggled again, "Aw, Onee-chan, it's okay! There are plenty of boys to flirt with~!"

"But I never get rejected!" Liz whined.

"Maybe it's because he was staring at the girl over your shoulder, he was looking at her the whole time."

"WHAT! Why would he look at some other girl? I'm HOT!" Liz exclaimed.

"Well, Onee-san… you are in sweats. And your hair is all messy."

"Not helping, Patty!" Liz sighed, "Anyways, how did the tour with Crona go?"

In the odd silence that followed the question, Kid's heart stopped, and a few profanities ran through his head. It was a minute or two before Patty finally spoke.

"Crona-chan was happy while we showed her around. Maka tried to catch her up on the lessons in class, but Crona-chan didn't look like she understood. I told her where Harvar threw up, too, her expression _was so funnily cute_!"

"Is funnily a word?" Liz asked.

"I think so." Patty answered.

Death the Kid almost felt sick to hear Patty talk so happily about the Demon Sword. But he was horribly nervous about what would happen if Patty told Liz what he did. So far, Patty was still chatting, not yet hinting that something had gone wrong.

"It sounds like she had fun." Liz said tiredly.

"Well," Patty hesitated, "Something else _did_ happen."

"Did something go wrong?" There was a note of suspicion in Liz's voice.

"See, the three of us were walking the hall Shinigami-sama's Death Room was on. We found Kid." Patty faltered, not really wanting to go further.

Death the Kid's breath hitched, 'Oh, shit.'

"What happened?" Liz pressed.

"When kid woke up (he was sleepy), he saw Crona. He got all scary and started yelling, he grabbed Crona's hair and he started to shake her. He was really hurting Crona because she started to cry, and he called her a monster. So Raggy came out and he hit him, then Crona ran away, Maka and I followed, too."

"**THAT DAMN BASTARD!**" Liz yelled.

Kid knew Liz was talking about him this time. When he heard her footsteps clomping up the flight of stairs to the rooms. Kid pushed away from the door and shut it closed. He fumbled on the lock of his door, but managed to do it.

'Thank the Lord for locks.' He thought.

Kid backed away from the door and placed his photo album in its box. Liz jiggled the knob trying to get in; seeing that it was locked she pounded on the door.

"KIIIDD!" she roared.

'Fu-' he didn't dare finish the word.

He quickly put the lid of the box on, wanting to hide it before Liz forced her way in. The pounding at his door was rapid. In all honest truth, Kid would admit that he completely terrified of his partner on this scary moment of his life.

"Little pig, little pig, let me IN!" Liz kicked the door, making the wood crack.

There was a giggle in the background from Patty, "Kya-ha-ha! Bye, Bye, Kid-kun!"

Kid shoved the box under the bed while Liz screamed, "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE, KID! IF YOU WEREN'T THE DOOR WOULDN'T BE LOCKED!"

With the box safe under his bed, Death the Kid sucked in his courage and neared the beating door. With a shaking hand he unlocked the door, jumping out of the way when it swung open, hitting the wall fiercely. Kid had never seen Liz as mad as this. Sure he had seen her pissed before, plenty of times actually, but right now she was seriously growling and Kid wouldn't be surprised if foam started to come from her mouth. Liz's hair was wild and chaotic with her stained sweats and an angry expression.

She clomped up to him and grabbed his shirt, putting her face close to his, "WHAT THE FU** (profanity filtering for that word)! YOU IDIOTIC SON OF A BITCH! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? TREATING CRONA LIKE THAT, SHE SHOULD HAVE KICKED YOUR ASS! I'M SURE SHE'S CAPABLE!"

Patty came in the door and stood behind Liz, a grin on her face, "Onee-chan should hurt Kid-kun for what he did. Damn right, you SHOULD! But Patty doesn't want to see Kid-kun get hurt." She threw in a sad look.

Liz let go of Kid and pushed him away from her, Kid stumbled, but caught his balance, then he yelled, "The thing is evil! What I did to it is nothing compared to what I _wanted_ to do!"

Liz glared at him, her eyes lit with burning fire from hell, "Bastard."

Kid ran a hand through his hair, leaving his it to rest on his head, "I'm sure everybody think I am, now will you _calm down_."

Liz huffed and cocked her hip, crossing her arms over her chest, "Fine."

"Thank you." Kid sighed, he pushed his bangs from his eyes with his right hand.

Patty's eyes widened, "Kid-kun, what's that?"

"What's what?"

Liz's eyes narrowed, "That stuff on your hand… what is it?"

Kid's heart thumped fearfully in his chest, "Um… I think it's dirt."

Liz snatched his wrist and looked at his knuckles closely, realization hit when the smell came, "Oh my gosh, it's blood isn't it?"

Patty's mouth formed into an o, "If it's black blood then…"

"YOU HIT CRONA DIDN'T YOU?"

Kid yanked his hand away, "Maybe so!"

"You bitch!"

Kid sat on his bed, hanging his head to hide his eyes, "Just leave."

Liz took Patty by the arm and dragged her out of the room, "Come on, Patty, let's go."

Liz slammed the door shut, leaving the room in a guilty quiet. Kid plopped back down on his back into the soft sheets and blankets of his bed. He knew that he wasn't planning on leaving the room any other time tonight, and tomorrow would be Saturday, so he would stay in as well. Kid sighed and changed into more comfortable clothing and decided to sleep, it would be the easiest way to forget the day. Groaning with exasperation, he laid on his stomach and pulled the black and white striped blankets over his head.

…

**A/N: Alright, I know I didn't to much wonderful effort into that, but I usually write while listening to my music on ****LimeWire ****but it keeps freezing on me so I had to type without music *insert tears, sniffle*. But, Liz has some major rage issues, and some profanity, yay profanity! Sorry, to the next entry!**

…

Shinigami sighed, what should he do? It had been three hours or so after he had heard what had gone on in Crona's room. He didn't know that his son would act so rashly after the conversation he had had with him. It was horrible how he treated the new student so roughly. It pained Shinigami to know how harsh his son was and especially toward someone as meek as Crona.

She (he finally found out Crona was female due to the information sheets) had undergone abuse up to these years of her life, and then, after meeting Maka, seemed to have weight lifted from her. With Kid torturing her now, it seemed that he would have to work harder to make sure Crona was a content student at his school.

Shinigami had heard muffled noises after the while of Crona's sobs, but they were too faint. Apparently Crona was on the other side of the room away from the microphone pen. After the minute or so of muffled noises, voices it seemed like, there was nothing more. It had been two and a half hours now of silence, and Shinigami was getting more and more concerned after time.

He glanced to the insanity meter, the scale went to 100, but it was on two at the moment, where before, with Crona, it was seventy-seven. Sid had been right, the child had a high amount of insanity within her. Shinigami calculated that, if the Kishin Asura hadn't revived, the mark of the meter, at the lowest, would still be in the forties.

Shinigami was impressed in a way, though. How Crona could contain all that insanity, it must be hard, she was over half engulfed with madness already. Shinigami sighed, a few more minutes passed of boredom before a crackling came from the speaker beside him. This sparked his attention, and he looked at it intently, waiting for the noises to continue further.

…

Crona remained quiet, not wanting to break the ice of the awkward silence that lasted the whole ride home. She, Free, and Eruka were on the Soul's motorcycle once again to take Crona to her new home at Shibusen. The silence was thick around Eruka and Free, who never much as glanced at each other, making Crona uncomfortable since she was sandwiched between them.

The wind that whipped through her hair was harsher than before, making her think of how much it will hurt when she'll try to brush it out with her fingers. Ragnarok was sleeping inside of her, making it seem even quieter than it already was. The desert night air was cold, and it stung as it hit against Crona's cheeks.

Free was tense, his body stiff. Eruka was quiet too and was trying to keep her hat of her head as the wind tried to take it away. Crona saw everything she did before, when the witch houses came up, she kept her eyes away to avoid seeing her old "home".

The sand swirled around them continuously, making harsh patterns in the air. Crona tried to see the rough sand whipping around as a graceful dance. After a while she succeeded and the rest of the way through the desert she watched its show. Crona knew when they were reaching closer to the Death City limits since the sand was starting to wisp away, thinning out.

Lights began to appear again, bright against the darkness, standing out like the bright stars that were absent in the dull red sky. Crona squinted against the sudden illumination, closing her eyes when they road through downtown. The intensity of the light dimmed a bit when they neared the back of Shibusen where Crona's room was.

The motorcycle came to a swift stop, and Free turned off the engine of the machine. Crona opened her eyes, happy that it was dark to her taste, and slid off from the motorcycle, keeping her balance. She looked at her two associates, they were both silent, as they were ever since they left. Eruka got off the seat and brushed loose sand off her dress. She started to head in the direction of Shibusen, raising her head to look at the entrance through Crona's window.

She turned her head slightly toward Free and Crona, her hair partially covering her eye, "I'm going to be in Crona's room for a bit to talk with her for a while. Crona, you can talk with Free but I'll be waiting okay?"

Crona nodded her head silently and watched Eruka summon Otama Jackson. The frog witch sat on the large black tadpole and let it raise her to the window. Eruka grabbed onto one of the bars of the window and put Otama away, transforming into a frog in time for her to land on the windowsill. Crona watched as Eruka disappeared into her room. She turned to Free, who was staring up at the window, too.

Crona shuffled her shoe to make circles in the dirt, "Um, you still are going to give the motorcycle back, right?"

Free looked down at her, "Yeah, why?"

Crona blushed a light gray, "Nothing. How did you get it to start anyways? Did you hot wire it?"

Free snorted, "Whatever idiot owns the bike, they left the keys in the ignition."

Crona deflated, 'Oh, Soul…'

Ragnarok yawned from inside of her, 'I wouldn't have really thought the scythe kid for dumbass.'

Crona sighed, "I guess I should go talk to Eruka to see what she wants to talk to me about."

Free shrugged, but his eyes held another emotion, "Okay. I hope you two girls don't take too long, I don't want to be waiting out here while you two chit-chat."

Crona smiled, "I'll try to not let the conversation linger."

Free grinned at her as she walked to the building, "Don't let Eruka shred you apart, I'm sure she's still pissed."

"No need to worry." She smiled.

Crona looked up at the window, 'Raggy…'

'Shut up.' He groaned tiredly.

The black wings spread from her back, she flapped them and she went up to the window.

…

Eruka jumped from the windowsill onto Crona's bed, hitting the mattress with a bounce. She transformed back into her regular form, crossing her right leg over her left knee, her arms across her chest. She sensed the odd radiation of electrical energy inside of the room. Using her abilities of being a witch, she strained her ears, and the faint cackling of static reached her ears.

Eruka cut off her breathing for a moment and looked around. She rose with caution, making the bed squeak softly. Her heels clicked against the stones of the floor and echoed, making her wary. The static became closer and Eruka swung her head in the direction it was, her long white hair flapping behind her, the orange hat that had rested on her head fell and slumped to the ground at the sudden action.

An old dresser was opposite of her, the wood was chipped and scratched, the color faded to the point it blended with the wall. Eruka straightened herself, walking past her hat and to the worn piece of furniture, on the top of it, resting suspiciously, was a black pen.

With a composed look across her face, coal eyes narrowed and lips tuned down, she picked up the pen with her light fingers. Letting the device hang from her fingertips, seeming in danger of being dropped. Eruka rotated it in her hands, examining it, and she noticed something. A little hole at the top of the pen, near it was a small font, barely legible, the letters MIC. Eruka frowned, her eyebrows pushing together, and gritted her teeth. Crona's room had been bugged. Eruka glowered at the harmful object. How long had it been here? And how had given it to the timid sword meister?

Eruka tried to calm down, and when she was composed, she raised the pen to her lips.

…

Shinigami was sitting down beside the quiet speaker, waiting anxiously. The faint crackling was becoming clearer, the sound of movement. He heard the sound of what he would believe someone raising from the creaking bed, was Crona asleep the whole time? The sound of clicking came too, it echoed slightly, confusing the mature shinigami. More noises. Slow, cautious breathing, someone trying to be silent. Noise. They were picking up the pen, is this Crona?

The breathing became more pronounced, the sound of inhaling. Shinigami looked at the insanity meter on the other side of the speaker quickly. Before when the room was empty it marked at two, and when Crona was there it had marked seventy-seven. Now it was wavering at twelve, reaching up to fifteen.

A whispered voice came from the speaker, "Good night, Shinigami-kun... Say good-bye to your little bug."

"What?" Shinigami stared at the speaker, confused as the next action was made.

…

Eruka took the microphone part of the pen in between her fingers and crushed it. The pen gave a cackle, but became silent. Eruka smiled and tossed the pen across the ground. It skid and rolled under the bed. Eruka picked her hat up from the ground and placed it back on her head.

"Geko."

The frog witch made the smug smirk on her face disappear as the familiar swordsman wormed her way through the window landing on the bed a bit roughly, the springs emitted a loud creak.

…

"No!" Shinigami exclaimed as the crack of the microphone was made.

The speaker was letting out an endless fuzz of static as Shinigami growled in exasperation. He clenched his hand into a fist.

"Sid!" he called.

The zombie, who was in the break room next to Shinigami's "office", had heard his name being called through the wall. He rushed into the hall and knocked on Shinigami's door.

"Sir?" Sid asked.

"Come in, Sid. Quickly."

Sid entered the room and jogged down the path that lead into the center of the room, where Shinigami lay angry in front of the large speaker.

"Sir, what is it?" Sid questioned frantically.

Shinigami rose his head to the teacher, "I want you to go to Crona's cell. Someone entered it and destroyed the bug, this may be vital. So I want you to see if anyone is there."

The zombie saluted, "Yes, sir!"

Sid took off, jogging to complete Shinigami's order. Shinigami groaned angrily under his breath, he glanced at the insanity meter. The small thermometer-like scale was wavering at ninety-two, Shinigami narrowed his eyes curiously.

'It seems that Crona is with who ever it was in the room for the insanity level to be that high.' He thought solemnly.

Sid, running now, wondered what it was that concerned Shinigami. It had to be vital for him to be in anger, with him always being serene and hidden behind his mask. The slaps of his sneakers echoed throughout the empty stone hallways on the lower levels of Shibusen were the Demon Swordsman was kept.

…

Crona lifted herself from the rough mattress, "Ow… that was a hard fall."

She settled into a sitting position on the bed, rubbing the side of her hip she landed on, and looked at Eruka. The witch was looking at the metal door, silent, her back facing Crona. When Eruka faced her, her eyes were nervous and her lips were pressed together tightly.

"Eruka-san?" Crona asked cautiously.

"Geko, that's not good…Crona I have to hide." She replied.

Crona agreed, but remained confused by Eruka's actions. Crona crawled into Mr. Corner, curling herself into a small ball. Eruka got the simple plan Crona was directing to, and transformed into a frog. The witch plopped onto the cold floor while Crona stared at her with confused eyes, and Eruka hopped closer. She squiggled into the small gap that was in between Crona's back and the wall, trying to hide her body.

Right at the moment Eruka was comfortable in the hideaway, there was a hurried knock at the door. Eruka held still, not daring to move, while Crona shivered slightly, trying to stay composed. Crona hugged her legs to make it seem normal, normal for her to do in everyone else's appearance anyways.

"Come in," she whispered.

The familiar zombie appeared in the doorway, his blank eyes looking around the room. He gazed at Crona huddled into the corner, her expression somber as always. He eyed her suspiciously, and with his gaze she looked away to the floor. Sid walked a bit closer to her, but enough to not terrify her.

"Hey, was there anyway here a moment ago?" he asked.

The depressed technician shook her head slowly, her face unemotional. Sid leaned his weight onto his left leg, the chains attached to his pocket clinking together, and put a hand on his neck.

"Great," he sighed, "Well, I suppose that's all I needed to ask."

Crona watched as Sid dragged himself out of the room, closing the door softly behind him in his disappointment. She felt the odd feeling of Eruka squirming herself out from behind her and scooted away from the wall to let Eruka get out more easily. The dark green frog morphed back into Eruka sitting on the floor, elbow on her bent knees, her cheek resting on her fist. Crona went back to her original spot and stared at the frog witch.

Eruka let her eyes look into Crona's, "Geko, thanks."

Crona asked Eruka a question, "Why did you need to hide?"

"I didn't think it wouldn't have been good for Shibusen to catch me."

"Oh, yeah. I guess I forgot..." Crona mumbled.

Eruka smiled, "It's okay, nothing bad happened, so that's good."

Crona smiled back, "So what was it that you wanted to tell me?"

…

Shinigami tried to wait patiently for Sid to return, but found he was succeeding due to his concern for what had gone on. When Shinigami heard the knock at his door he allowed Sid to enter immediately wondering the outcome. Sid walked up to him, his hands comfortably in his pockets, and stopped a few feet away.

"So what's the verdict?" Shinigami questioned.

Sid sighed, "No one was there, other than Crona of course."

"Crona was there?" Shinigami asked.

Sid raised an eyebrow, "Yes, sir. Is she not to be?"

Shinigami shook his head, "No, it's nothing to important."

Sid nodded, "Okay, sir. Will you call me if anything else is needed?"

"Of course, you may go if you please." Shinigami answered.

Sid bowed respectfully and left the room. Shinigami slumped next to the speaker, he wasn't that happy he had lied. It wasn't a big lie, no, it wasn't really a lie at all. It's true that Crona being in her room wasn't important, but the fact that she seemed to have disappeared for a period of time, a strange person entered her room, crushed his bug, and when Sid went to check, Crona was there as if nothing had ever happened. It was a bit suspicious to the shinigami. He glanced over to the insanity meter, the scale was wavering down to sixty-nine. If Crona was the only one there, what was it that was happening to make her so calm?

…

Eruka gave a nervous laugh, "Geko…Um, I wanted to tell you about what happened outside with Free and me."

Crona blinked, "You both were really red, what happened?"

Eruka sighed, "Well… you saw that we were arguing before we went outside." Crona nodded. "Free was saying how it was stupid to get all girly with the baby and Ishi, and so of course I got mad. People were starting to stare and when he smiled at that witch, it-it just set me off, s-so I dragged him outside. Once the door was shut I started to yell at him about being an ass and he threw in his yelling too. I was growling at him about the incident with the other witch… and-and it wound up to him asking, yelling actually…w-why I even cared."

Eruka was on the verge of tears, her lips trembling. Crona hesitantly patted Eruka's shaking back, not really knowing how to deal with her crying. Eruka brought hid in her knees, her hair blocking out the sight of her, and clutched her hat; she pulled it down as if trying to hide herself even farther.

She continued on her story, "Wh-when he asked that question! I-I just wasn't thinking! S-so after he s-said that I stomped my foot and just blurted out 'Because I love you!' I practically screamed it at him. I realized that I hadn't planned on saying that and we both just froze! I-I was so embarrassed!"

Crona was comforting Eruka, but was happy somehow on the inside, why was she when Eruka was crying here in front of her? Eruka sniffled and raised her head, swishing the hair from her eyes, her cheeks flushed a bright pink. Eruka rubbed her eyes and rose from the floor, brushing off her dress.

She turned to Crona and gave a small laugh, "Geko, my apologies for taking up your time and crying. But I've got to get going, Free's probably pissed…"

Crona waved good-bye to Eruka and watched as she hopped out the window. Crona sighed, she hoped that Eruka and Free would be happy, she would have to see on that. Crona snuggled into her corner and leaned her head against the wall. Ragnarok was sleeping inside of her still so there was nothing to distract her from sleep. Clearing her mind of her stresses, she drifted off into an easy sleep, trying to ignore the fact that when she closed her eyes, the first thing she saw was the boy with the white stripes and the eyes of her mother.

….

**A/N: Okay, so I know that this wasn't my best chapter, I'm really sorry. Lots of switching POVs in this one and none of them lasted very long. I swear, I will _try_ to write a bit better. But I've added a little bit of FreexEruka, and will continue that in the background. So even though it kind of sucked, well I feel it as a bit of a small failure, please review! Or thou shalt not see the living day again, ok so that's not a promise, but review or you'll make me sad! T.T**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So this chapter is more fluff than anything, it's more lighthearted than all the other ones. I want to say thank you to my 50+ reviews, it makes me really happy what you guys say about my story, so much that sometimes I feel like I'm about to cry from joy (ok not really, but I you all!) It motivates me a lot! Sorry though if it takes more than a little while to update, writer's block has hit me straight in the face with its evilness. Also lots of stress because my birthday is coming up (13****th****, no the teens!), and my parents are grilling me about what where I want to go to dinner and etc. I don't care really about my birthday, especially since I'm now going into the teens~ whippee. Enough of my ranting, to the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or the characters (if somehow that magically happened, I would explode), but the OCs are miiiiinnnneeeee, not allowed to steal unless you ask and I give permission.**

…

Chapter 6:

Shopping, Pregnant Woman, a Frog, and a Wolf

Maka sat at the yellow table of her apartment's kitchen early that morning. She was clutching the handle of a mug of coffee with her right hand, letting her left circle the rim of the mug with her index finger. She raised the mug to her lips and sipped the hot liquid, it was sweet, she had added lots of sugar to it, and milk to turn the black coffee to a creamy brown. Maka had always thought she would never be without coffee in the morning, what good was someone tired and grumpy than hyped up and caffinated?

She took another drink and set the mug down onto the table, though today was Saturday, she was still up at six a.m. like any other weekday. It was bit pasted eight now, after taking her time to drag out of bed and enjoy soaking in the shower for longer than normal. She looked at the digital number clock on the stove, it was eight twenty-four, Soul should be up in half an hour or so, he liked to sleep in.

She wondered why he would sleep in when you had an entire free day in front of you, to not be at school, Soul of all people should _want_ to get up early. Maka sighed and shook out her loose hair, parting it from the back and picking up one of the two rubber bands on the table, putting the other one between her teeth to hang from her mouth. She put up one of her pigtails and did the other, happy that she was finally able to do it perfectly without using a mirror.

Maka, as she stared at the steam rising from her cup and waft into the air, thought that maybe she could visit Crona and help her get situated, and ask her if she's okay from what happened with Kid too. Since the first class since the Kishin revived was this Monday, Maka only had today and tomorrow to prepare her timid new friend. She would go school shopping for Crona and teach her up to speed.

Her gaze traveled to Blair on the couch, curled up sleeping in her kitten form, her tail wrapped around her body. While Maka watched Blair sleep, moving with her deep breaths, her tail occasionally twitching, she heard a low groan from in front of her. From the corner of her eye she saw Soul freshly woken up, his white hair messy and his crimson eyes groggy. He was still wearing his pajamas, which consisted of a black T-shirt and blue flannel bottoms. Maka frowned as she noticed a hole on the side of his T-shirt, she would have to fix that.

He plopped down in the seat opposite of her, "Morning, Maka. What are you doing?"

Maka didn't turn to him, "Thinking."

He grunted and leaned back in the yellow wood chair, his hands behind his head, "You think too much."

His partner made no reply to him as she circled the rim of her mug again. Soul stood up and went to the coffee pot, pulling down another mug from the cabinet above. As the sound of hot coffee poured into the cup, Soul glanced over at his meister. Maka was still circling the rim of her drink, staring absentmindedly at nothing.

Soul shook his head, 'I'll never be able to understand that girl…'

The two students sat in a comfortable quiet as each of them got their daily dose of caffeine. After a few minutes, Blair yawned, her small canine teeth showing. She padded over to Maka's chair and jumped onto her lap, curling up again, her tail swishing lazily. Maka stroked the cat's soft black fur, having Blair purr contently.

After the both of them finished their coffee, Blair jumped onto the floor and stretched. She sat down and gave a lick to her paw, grooming some of her fur. She poofed into her human form, kneeling on the ground, her purple cat ears droopy. She got up from the floor and yawned, spreading her arms out, closing her honey brown eyes. She reopened her eyes and her ears flicked, but she seemed tired.

"I had to work the late shift at Chupacabra's last night." She explained, "Too tired to play with Soul this morning."

Soul grinned in relief and watched as Blair dragged herself to Maka's room, where they shared a closet, to change out of her pink nightgown. Maka finished her coffee and took hers and Soul's empty glass to wash; she started the water and started to suds the soap onto the mugs, cleaning them of any stains.

Soul came up behind her, "I could have washed mine myself, ya know."

Maka's emerald eyes looked at Soul's crimson ones, "I know. Does it _bother_ you that I insist on taking care of you to an extent?"

He chuckled and played with one of her pigtails, "But I can take care of myself."

Maka rinsed off the mugs, now clean from the coffee, and dried her hands on the towel by the sink. She turned to Soul, hands on her hips, her mouth turned to one side in amusement. He still had one of her pigtails, and since they weren't that long, it made him at a close distance to her face. Maka grabbed his hand and lowered it from her hair, leaning closer to him, and she slid off her slippers to make it easier for her to stand on her toes. Her lips met his softly for a moment before she backed away slightly, smiling.

Soul ruffled her hair and laughed when she pouted that she had just fixed her hair a couple minutes ago. Maka rolled her eyes and went into her room to see what nose-bleeding outfit Blair would wear for today.

Blair was still in her ruffly pink nightgown, standing at Maka's bed, staring at two outfits she had lain out. She had a hand on her chin, seeming in deep concentration of what she would wear. Seeing that Maka came in, she pounced in front of her, her honey eyes sparkling.

"Maka-chan! Could you help Blair see what she should wear?"

Maka blinked, "Um…?"

Blair grabbed Maka's wrist and pulled her over to stand by the bed, "I can decide…"

Maka looked at the two options side by side, they were both skimpy of course, she picked the easy way out.

'Eenie Meenie Minie Mo…'

"That one." Maka said pointing to the one on the right.

Blair stared at the one Maka pointed to, "You chose that one? Then Blair will take the other!"

Maka sighed as Blair began to change into the outfit and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Soul was lying on the couch, his feet propped on the arm of the chair, watching something random. Maka pushed his legs to make him sit up; he grumbled, but did as she wanted, not bothering to complain. She sat beside him and leaned onto his shoulder.

"If you keep laying on the couch like that, you'll mess up your back." She explained.

He looked down at her and grinned, wrapping his arm around her, "Always one to look out for me like a mother."

Maka giggled, but sighed, "I'm going to visit Crona today."

Soul raised his eyebrow, "Crona, that reminds me. After your little tour with her, you came back kinda ticked. What was with that?"

Maka shifted, "We found Kid."

"Ah, still pissed at his grumpiness I see."

Maka shook her head, "No it wasn't that. He did something else."

Soul narrowed his eyes, "Did he hit on you?"

Maka pushed away from Soul and gave him a stern look, "No!"

Soul raised his hands in surrender, "Sorry! What did he do then?"

Maka sighed and began to tell Soul about what happened, putting in more detail than Patty had explaining to Liz, seeming to paint a story in the air before her. Soul listened quietly, not wanting to interrupt, grinding his teeth when Maka started to explain angrily in detail of how Kid had treated Crona. She told him about comforting the shy girl, but leaving her alone thinking that Crona wanted to be.

"So, I want to go see her to check how she is. I also want to help her get prepared for school since she's never gone to one before, I want to teach at least the basics." Maka finished.

Soul rubbed his neck, "I can see why you were pissed. Kid was a jackass."

He watched his partner as she stood up and stretched, "Well, I'm going to get on my shoes and go to Crona's."

As she walked off to retrieve her shoes Soul asked, "Isn't it a bit early? Maybe Crona's still sleeping."

But Maka was already out of sight. Soul shrugged to himself, leaning back into the sofa, closing his eyes. Maka reappeared with her boots (if they were to be called that) on, heading toward the door. The couch was on the way to the exit, so Maka leaned it to Soul to say her way of "good-bye".

"Blair's ready!" the cat exclaimed appearing in her revealing attire.

Seeing Soul's nose bleed, Maka straightened up and mumbled, "I'm leaving now."

Maka walked out the door and let the cold morning wind of winter wash over her. She began to walk in the direction of Shibusen, seeing that nothing was really open at this hour, other than a few restaurants that were open for breakfast. She walked down the streets of Death City gazing at what she saw every day, skimming over the lines of buildings to take off some boredom to her walk. When she passed by the bookstore she smiled, though she had passed the building more times than she could remember, it always cheered her up. She had to take Crona there, she would today for the school shopping she needed.

At the grand doors of Shibusen, Maka wondered if she would get in trouble for being at school on a weekend. No, she had plenty times before to speak with teachers and help them around her classrooms, so she was confident she would get by without being noticed. Opening the doors, Maka slipped inside, wondering how to get to Crona's room. Going by memory, the blonde went in the direction she felt that she needed to go.

After a few minutes or so, the scythe technician found her way into the lower levels that had the stone halls, and only needed to find out how to get to Crona's cell specifically. In her exploring, Maka ran into Marie-sensei, a new teacher to come to Shibusen after Asura awakened. The woman was cheerful with a patch over her eye, and offered to try to help the young girl find her destination…

Several hours later, Maka finally sighted the number of Crona's room, thanking the teacher quickly, walking away. The blonde stored into memory to inform everyone that the new teacher had a very bad sense of direction. Maka knocked on Crona's room door and, without waiting for an answer, stepped inside.

"Excuse me," she said entering the room, "Crona-chan?"

Maka gazed around the room to find the familiar demon swordsman curled into her tiny ball in the corner of the room. She smiled as she saw Crona's sleeping face leaning on the stone wall, cheek resting on her shoulder. The depressed teenager's expression was into one of peace and shifting her thin body to gain comfort again on the hard floor that was acting as her bed.

"Crona-chan?" Maka called again, trying to wake the girl.

Crona inhaled deeply and opened her navy-blue eyes, mumbling slightly. She lifted her head from the wall and noticed the person standing in her room. Rubbing her eyes, Crona pushed herself up from the ground, the action causing the necklace she had on to move, reminding her about the gift.

"Maka…?" the pink haired technician asked drearily.

Her friend waved, "Yes?"

"Wh-why are you here?" Crona stuttered.

Maka blinked then brightened, "I wanted to visit you, of course!"

Crona blushed, "R-really?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Um…" Crona mumbled.

Crona felt the stirring in her spine as Ragnarok drearily came out, "Oi, pig-tails…?"

Maka blinked curiously at Ragnarok addressing to her, "Yes, Ragnarok?"

His x pupil eyes were tired and his small body was limp on top of Crona's head, in Maka's eyes at the moment. But of course she knew she shouldn't say that, or the tiny weapon would get angry.

"Why'd you have to get us so early…?" he whined.

Maka giggled, "I'm sorry, Ragnarok."

He mumbled a low 'Gupi-pi' before returning back inside his meister. Maka beamed and took Crona by the hand, dragging her out of the room. Crona let out a small 'eep!' before being taken down the corridors into the main levels of Shibusen. Many people looked as they saw the studious blonde leading an unfamiliar person quickly out of the school building into the streets. Crona tried to pay no mind, only focusing on keeping her balance and the happy friend in front of her.

…

Liz groaned, she'd never thought that there would ever be a morning when she would read the newspaper. She put it down on the deep rich brown dining table, skimming over the words in her boredom. Liz had an expresso (**A/N: you know your computer is old when it says that expresso is not a word**) by her side, she started her mornings with caffeine much like Maka and Soul, that she had ordered from DeathBucks after she found out recently they delivered.

She looked at Patty who was tearing apart her toast, laughing, and shoving in into her mouth after telling it to 'die'. Patty giggled even harder when she bit into it, the toast making a satisfying _crunch;_ the she continued her fun game of 'torture' by stabbing into the hard bread with her fork.

Liz thought about yesterday, how Patty told her about how Kid had acted toward the poor girl Crona, Patty had given more detail when she visited Liz in her room.

Patty clanked her dishes into the sink, running the water and scrubbing with the soap singing, "Wash, wash, wash, wash! Kya-ha-ha!"

Liz stared at her little sister and wondered if maybe, before their parents abandoned them, Patty was somehow dropped on her head, maybe more than one time. Turning back to table, Liz shook her head and continued her thoughts. Taking a swig from her expresso, Liz thought about the actions that _she_ did yesterday.

Had she been too rash? She had kicked Kid's door and cracked the wood, she didn't really mean for that to happen, but was it going too far? No, Liz felt that Kid deserved to be punished through forced pain physically, and even more emotionally to change some of his thinking. Liz wasn't furious at the moment toward her stubborn meister, but wasn't at all content with him either.

Patty plopped onto the wood seat in front of her sister, "Hey, big sis? Whatcha thinkin'?"

Liz let her eyes travel up to her sister's wide ones, "About that idiot boy of ours."

"Oh! Kid-kun~!" Patty's eyes brightened then asked darkly, "Are you thinking of ways to hurt him?"

"No." the elder answered truthfully, "I'm thinking about a way to somehow punish him though."

"How 'bout we give Kid-kun the silent treatment for a while?" Patty offered.

Liz grinned and pumped a fist up to her chin in excitement, "Great idea, Patty. We could refuse to go on any missions too, that would kill him."

Patty grinned evilly, "Hee-hee-hee!"

She skipped off to the living room, exclaiming with joy that _Scarface_ was on, "Say hello to my little friend! Kya-ha-ha! BOOM!"

The elder sighed and twirled her hair around her finger, wondering if she should be nice enough to make breakfast for Kid today. No, her anger had not yet subsided, she would remain ignoring him for a few more days or so. She was sure he could manage to cook without setting the house to fire, or he could go hungry, either way…

Death the Kid pushed the covers away from his head and opened his eyes to the light shining through the window. He sat up and rubbed his head, he could feel a headache building up, and got out of bed. He groaned and went to his large dresser and gathered some clean under garments, then went to his closet to get his normal attire of the same suit he had stocked up on, and cautiously headed out of his bedroom door.

The only noises were Patty's giggling downstairs in the living room and Liz telling the blonde to quiet down with her loud laughing. Kid snuck across the hall into the bathroom, where he locked the door and started the shower. He set his clothes in the small closet he had installed to put his clothes and waited for the water in the shower to get to the warm temperature that he wanted. He looked at his knuckles, he had still forgotten to wash off the Demon Sword's blood.

'Dammit, how could I have forgotten that many times?' he scolded to himself.

He began to strip off his clothes, throwing them into the hamper by the door, and got into the shower. He let the water soak his hair as he stood looking at the ceiling above him. His stomach growled lowly, alerting him that he was hungry. He knew that Liz wouldn't make him anything, he was a decent enough cook that he would survive, but he was no gourmet chef.

Grabbing the bar of soap he began to wash himself off, scrubbing his knuckles furiously, groaning in defeat when the blood was apparent to have stained for the time being. He leaned against the black and white tiles of the shower for a moment, just stalling his time in the calming warm heat of the water. His eyes stared at the number of tiles on the wall, he remembered that he had ordered, when the house was being re-done several years ago, that eleven medium sized tiles go across the wall of the shower and eleven go down as well because eleven was a symmetrical number and eight would be too little the number of tiles. Kid scoffed at himself, how foolish that decision was so long ago.

He decided he should hurry up and finished washing, turning the faucet in the shower off. He grabbed a black towel and wrapped it around his waist, shaking the water from his hair. Kid wondered what he would eat since he wasn't going to risk several years of his life by going downstairs.

'I remember Patty stashed a giant sized bag of Skittles bag under the sink the Halloween this year two months ago, she couldn't have eaten all of it, it was much too huge. Maybe that'll be my breakfast…'

…

Maka lead Crona inside her apartment, shutting the door and locking the bolt. Crona let her eyes wander, taking in the new scenery of her best friend's home. The living room was the first thing you walked into, the coffee table in between the TV and the couch had two car magazines, a folded newspaper, and an empty glass on it. There was a circular rug was underneath the deep brown coffee table, it had rings on the inside, the pattern of colors going from light green to pink to light green again.

The kitchen was connected to the living room, the beige carpet cut off entering the kitchen, turning into yellow tile. The table was centered in the middle, four chairs were placed around it, and one of them was pushed out. A thin hallway stretched out near the kitchen and one door was at the end. On the right wall of the kitchen there were two doors; one of them had the blue label 'SOUL' on it, a 'Keep Out' sign, and the mouth logo that was on Soul's headband, the other was plain and had nothing on it, but it was obviously Maka's.

Said technician tapped Crona's shoulder, "If you want, you can sit on the couch."

Crona turned her head slightly to her friend and nodded silently, heading toward the couch. When she sat down she was surprised at how soft it was and smiled happily at the comfort. Maka placed herself next to the timid girl and let her legs rest up of the cushions of the couch.

Ragnarok decided to join in, "Alright place, she-pig. Better than any place this one and I have ever lived."

"Thank you Ragnarok." Maka thanked.

Ragnarok rolled his x pupil eyes and disappeared as he turned into a black mass and went back inside Crona. Maka 'hmph'ed at his leaving, but ignored it and began to talk to Crona.

"I expected to find Soul and Blair here, but I guess they both left. At least now I don't have to worry about protecting you against the cat." Maka said.

Crona tilted her head to the side, "Protect me form the cat? Who's Blair?"

"Oh yeah, you only know Soul." Maka realized, "Blair is our other roommate. She's probably gone for her shift at Chupacabra's right now, but she's a cat who is able to transform into a human. Soul isn't too fond of her since she tends to have a really big, and unbreakable habit, of… seducing people…"

Crona felt herself darken slightly, "Oh…"

Maka nodded, then turned to her friend, "Crona-chan?"

"Yes?" the demon sword wielder answered.

"Not to be rude, I'm just merely curious, but… when's the last time you bathed?"

Crona blinked and repeated, "The last time I bathed?"

The scythe technician nodded and Crona thought, "The day before we fought. Why?"

"Okay, that wasn't too long ago." Maka replied, "I was wondering."

"Alright." Crona responded, "I'm going to take a shower at Shibusen when I get back, I feel kind of sticky."

"How are you going to take a shower at Shibusen?" Maka questioned.

"Shinigami-sama told me that the locker rooms had showers and I was able to use them and that there was bar soap available." Crona answered.

"What about shampoo?"

"What's that?" Crona asked.

"Liquid soap to clean your hair." Maka explained.

"O-oh, I use bar soap for that too."

"Hey, I can give you some better soap to take back to Shibusen." Maka offered.

"N-no, th-that's okay, Maka." Crona replied.

Maka smiled, "No really I insist. How about you take a shower now, you can use ours. I want you to use good soap."

The blonde saw her friend's usually sad dull blue eyes brighten, "Really?"

"Of course."

"T-thank you."

"But when you undress, if you could hand me your clothes, I'll throw them in the washer. Don't worry though, I'll give you a loan of clothes." Maka said.

The other technician stared at the blonde, "Y-you don't have to Maka-chan."

"No, I want to." Was Maka's reply, "You can go into the bathroom, it's over there," Maka pointed in the direction, "and I'll be right back with the loan of clothes."

Maka got up and walked across the room into the doors that led into her bedroom. Crona lifted herself from her comfortable seat and walked down the thin hall that led to the single door at the end, but reaching the end she noticed that there was one more door to the right. It was most likely an extra bedroom used for guests when Maka and Soul had one.

Crona turned the knob of what was the bathroom door and opened it, stepping inside, and flicking on the light above that was on the ceiling. It was white tiled and clean, it's design and color scheme seemed to be based on white. Though the color was bland, it was nice and had an elegant touch to it somehow. She closed the door behind her but left the lock open, she was sure that Maka wouldn't be one to intrude like that.

The demon sword wielder noticed the large mirror that took up the entire space above the sink, it touched the ceiling, and had the glass had no smudges on its clear surface. As Crona peered into it, she studied her appearance; she was surprised at how she looked since it had been several months since she had really cared to study her own reflection.

Crona ran her fingers through the uneven strands of lavender hair that framed her face, watching as the reflection in the mirror imitated her movements. Her deep navy blue eyes seemed somewhat lifeless and sad, the depressed demeanor obvious from how she looked and her eye's expression. Her dress was worn, and the black fabric had faded into a dark gray on the more worn out areas like the edge of her dress.

She noted that, thanks to a certain witch named Eruka, she was indeed overly under developed. Though, the fact didn't bother Crona much, she was fine how she was. Crona felt that if she weren't this "flat", she wouldn't know how to deal with it at all. Battling would become more of a hassle to not move as freely as she could now, which she still had some point of restraint due to her dress. And when Medusa told her to retrieve a large amount of souls, Crona would find a crowded area of men, she felt somewhat uncomfortable around women, men were more aggressive and made it easier for her to think of a reason to kill, they would take the small teenager for a boy and just say that she was a little wimp and a wannabe. They wouldn't say anything about girls.

Unlike when Medusa had assisted her in training for Crona's first crowd kill of men, when they all swarmed around the witch and made immature comments about her body, which they regretted doing when Medusa gave them a slow death of her standing above them. Yes, Crona was happy with this under development, it made things easier. Especially when there was only an area of large quantities of people of one gender, Crona was able to pass as both a male and a female.

Though, there were some instances where her hips were a problem, it was true that boys don't usually have such wide hips. But the Crona and her mother had always found a way to squeeze around that to get into somewhere they needed to.

Thinking of all this Crona remembered a time she would never forget, but one she so, so dearly wanted to. It had been several months ago, maybe even a year ago, and it had been late at night. Medusa had informed her daughter that there was a late swim meeting at a public activity center, and that she was to go in and pretend that she was a boy and was interested in joining the swim team. And then when they went to change in the locker rooms, to kill them all.

Medusa's daughter had gone to do her task, not at all ecstatic about pretending to be interested in swimming, pretending to be a boy didn't bother her, she had done it many times. Crona had gone to the public activity center's office and had gave them a fake name, saying that she was interested in watching the swim team to see what it was like and if she wanted to join. The woman behind the counter of course allowed the thin teenager in, unaware of how it was going to end.

Crona expected to see all men, Medusa had told her that it was going to be, but when Crona walked in, she immediately wished she didn't have to go into the locker rooms. What Medusa had not told her though was that they were all over weight middle-aged men. Crona wasn't too thrilled about her task after that, not that she was very happy to begin with, but still.

When the frightened teenager entered the locker room, she felt that she might have been scared mentally through what she saw. Trying to keep her eyes closed most of the time, Crona ignored Ragnarok's comments through her thoughts of what _he_ was seeing since he had snuck out of her back and tried to keep hidden.

Once all the men were inside the small cramped room, in Crona's case avoiding being touched, she hurriedly swiped her sword with a Screech Alpha, murdering them all with the one attack. Crona had sighed with relief that her task was over and that Medusa promised her dinner that night. Due to the loud noise Crona's attack made the woman who was behind the counter had rushed to the room, bursting in, screaming when she saw the splashes of blood around the room with the lone thin girl there. Crona felt that the woman was lucky since the she didn't have to see all of the overweight undressed men before the swordsman killed her.

Cringing at the past memory, the swordsman now returned to the present. Crona felt that she had been thinking for a long time and decided that it might be wise to begin undressing herself and push away the horrible images that she had once seen. As Crona began to unfasten the buttons at her neck, there was a soft knock on the door next to her.

"Can I come in?" the familiar voice of Maka asked.

Crona stepped back from the door, "Yes."

The scythe technician entered through the door, some garments of cloth thrown over her arm. Maka set the clothes on the counter of the sink and pulled up one of the pieces. They were a pair of long black jeans and Maka held them up next to Crona's legs in comparison.

"These may fit. They were Liz's and she gave them to me, but they were too long to fit me, but I think they'll fit you. The shirt may be a little snug on you though, but it'll be enough to cover you up. Oh, I gave you another pair of underwear too. Soul gave them to me as a joke for a gift, but I never opened it, so I feel they should fit."

Crona nodded, the shirt that Maka had shown was short sleeved and that bothered her a bit, but Maka was being nice enough to loan it to her. Maka set the jeans back on the counter and went to the shower tub that was a few feet away. She turned the knob pulled the small tab on the top of the faucet for the water to shoot out of the showerhead. The scythe technician adjusted the temperature and stood back, smiling at Crona.

"There you go! You can use the bar soap or the body wash and shampoo, though I'd rather you use those. When you're done the towels are in the cabinet next to the sink here, when you're done using a towel you can just put it on the counter here, I'll get it later. When you're dressed come into my room, I'll leave the door open, and hand me your old clothes." Maka directed.

The timid girl nodded and watched as the blonde smiled and exited the room, shutting the door softly. Crona bit her lip and began to undo the rest of the buttons at her neck. Pulling her dress off over her head, Crona heard Ragnarok comment through her thoughts.

'Idiot, why aren't you locking the door?' he scolded.

Crona began to fold her garment into a square and set it on the opposite side of the counter, 'I don't think I need to, that's why.'

'Who knows! Just lock the damn door to make me feel better!' he growled.

Crona sighed and clicked the lock on the knob of the door, 'Better?'

'Somewhat.' He answered.

Crona pulled off her gray cotton underwear and removed the white tank-top that she wore under her dress. She folded them as well and stacked them on top of her dress. Crona looked down to the necklace that was reflecting the artificial light that was shining on it, she unhooked it and set it next to her clothes, hoping that it would not fall. Crona stepped warily into the shower and shivered when the warm water washed over her cold skin. Crona looked at the two bottles that were in the shower, they were obvious to tell apart by the large characters that were printed on them 'SHAMPOO' and 'BODY WASH'.

Obeying what Maka had told her to do, Crona grabbed the shampoo and let some of the thick liquid come out into her hand and lathered it into her hair. It had a sweet fragrance of something Crona could not identify, but she made a guess and thought that maybe it was strawberry.

Crona tried to hurry her time bathing, though she did enjoy the, in her opinion, fancy soaps and the clean area. After she was done washing, Crona turned off the water with a turn of the faucet knob and stepped out. She shivered when the air went over the water that was on her skin, her feet were standing on a carpet that was in front of the shower tub for water to not make the white floor wet. Crona opened the cabinet Maka told her to and got a white (of course) towel, wrapping the soft fabric around her body.

The swordsman ruffled the towel through her short hair, drying it to where it was only slightly damp. She folded the towel and placed it on the counter, looking at the loans she was to put on. Crona was wary of putting on the underwear, probably any one would be, they probably wouldn't fit, and it was odd to have someone loan you such private things as undergarments, but she wasn't going to disobey her friend.

Pulling on the clothes, Crona was surprised that it all fit, the soft pinkish colored underwear was her size, the black jeans were snug against her body, but not to a point of uncomfort, and the shirt fit too, the only part that was displeasing was the fact it bared the skin of her arms.

The only other thing she needed to put on was the necklace, the part of the chain hung in the air, the smooth metal shiny. Crona lifted it and placed it around her neck, struggling to fasten the hook as she did when Lily first gave it to her, though now, she had no assistance.

Ragnarok sighed inside of her and came out from her spine, trying not to bump into Crona's hands behind her neck. He grabbed the ends of the necklace with his small sphere shaped hands and fastened them together.

Finished helping his meister, he grinded his fist into Crona's skull, "Pathetic little bitch."

Crona whined and swatted at him, "N-no, st-stop it!"

"Where's my 'thank you'!"

"Th-thank you!"

After mercilessly pinching her nose, Ragnarok disappeared, calling her less than appropriate names. Crona tucked the necklace. grabbed her worn folded clothes and walked out of bathroom, flicking off the light and shutting the door. Crona went down the thin hall and looked at the open door to Maka's room, timidly walking inside. The room was cheerful, and Maka was lying on her bed and waved as the girl stepped inside.

There was a desk pushed against the wall with several books and papers scattered on top of it. A calendar was hanging on the wall, the days marked of with a red marker, the picture of a white blooming rose for the month's picture. Crona noticed the date, it was Saturday December 28th. The bed Maka was laying on, or now sitting cross-legged on, had yellow blankets with pale pink stripes running along the covers horizontally. Maka had been holding a green hardcover book, but set it down on the nightstand beside the bed, motioning for Crona to sit down beside her.

Crona hesitantly sat on the soft cushioned bed and slowly handed Crona her folded garments as instructed. Maka smiled and took them, standing up and telling Crona to stay and wait in her spot while she threw the clothes in the washer.

"I'll be right back, just stay there." Maka directed leaving out the door.

Crona sighed and waited, seated comfortably on the bed, letting her legs swing lazily in the air. Maka entered the room a short while later and plopped on the bed next to Crona and began to a small conversation with her sheepish friend.

"Maka?" Crona started.

"Yes?"

"W-why does Patty like giraffes?" Crona asked curiously.

The scythe technician blinked, "To be honest, I have no idea…"

Maka began question Crona on her past life, "How frequently did Medusa let you take a shower?"

The swordsman shifted, "At my old home, we had one shower. It was really dirty and rusty, but it worked, so we used it. Since my mother didn't care too much about my cleanliness, I took one every other day. She would take one, the next day I would and so on."

"Well it makes sense in a way." Maka replied.

"I suppose…"

**(A/N: I'm going to get a bit cheesy just so I can be done finishing this scene.) **"Hey, Crona. The reason I really wanted to bring you here was to ready you for school. So I wanted to take you downtown to get some school supplies."

The scythe technician received a curious glance from Crona, "W-what?"

"Well since your first day of school will start on Monday, I wanted to somewhat teach you the basics and get you ready so you're not too far behind." Maka explained.

"Oh," Crona nodded.

"So right now I want to take you to get he stuff you need." Maka grinned and took Crona by the wrist.

"O-okay, Maka…"

The two, with Maka being in command of directions, headed out the door. Eagerly, the blonde technician dragged her poor friend through the town of Death City, making them receive odd glances from passing citizens. Crona avoided the eyes and only focused on the enthusiastic friend in front of her.

…

"I hate being pregnant…" Ishi groaned.

Lily patted the large woman's head, "I'm sure it's not fun."

Lily and Venus had decided to visit their pregnant companion for something to do other than just sit around. But they ended up caring for the pregnant woman who was lying unenergetically on the red loveseat in her cottage-like home. Lily was sitting on the armrest of the loveseat next to Ishi's head and Venus sat in a chair fairly close to the other two in an old brown leather chair.

Ishi had said she'd been lying down on the loveseat nonstop from how she had been feeling; groaning in pain and mumbling that she wished she hadn't have met the man named Akihito. Lily and Venus had been attempting to comfort the woman, but pregnancy was never easy for humans or witches.

Venus gave a small smile, "Don't worry, Ishi. At least witch pregnancy is faster than for humans."

Ishi groaned, "Thank, God. How do they _survive_!"

Lily comforted Ishi again, "Well witches don't die from giving birth, some humans die."

"Do you two know about what happened with Karina?" Venus asked.

Both women shook their heads no so Venus continued, "Well, Karina was working at her job a couple days ago and there was a pregnant woman there."

Ishi sighed, "I won't ever understand why she got a job, she doesn't need to, she's a witch. And mostly, she works at McDonald's, she's going to get caught one day."

Venus sighed, "It's not like we have control over what she does. Anyways, there was a pregnant woman as some crazy human man came and _shot_ her."

"Why would someone shoot a pregnant woman in BROAD DAYLIGHT for no reason!" Ishi yelled.

"Who knows, the woman and the baby died of course. Karina says that she wished could have used her magic, but of course she couldn't, people would get the wrong idea…"

Lily shook her head and sighed, "Humans…"

"I feel cold." Ishi stated, "Lily, could you get me a blanket, I'm really not able to get up, I've gotten too big."

It was true, Ishi had stomach seemed to have grown in size, restraining her from being able to move very fast or getting up from a lying down or sitting position. Lily got up and retrieved a blanket from the cupboard in the nearby hall, going back and placing it on the pregnant woman. Lily sat back down on her spot on the loveseat's armrest.

Lily began a conversation on another topic, "I was listening to the radio yesterday and realized that I haven't been listening to music lately."

"What do you mean by that?" Venus asked.

"The last time I remember listening to the radio was seven years ago. There are a lot of songs that I've never heard before." Lily answered.

"I would think, I mean seven years is quite a long time to have not listened to music." Venus replied.

"Well, I listened to music every so often, but not _new_ music."

"Did you find anything you liked, music-wise." Venus questioned.

Lily thought, "I found a lot of songs that I liked actually."

"Like…?" Venus prodded.

Lily set her mouth at an angle, trying to remember the names of songs and their artists, "I seem to be very fond of a band named Skillet, they were really good. I heard one song by a band by the name of Korn, it was a really good song, I kept replaying it when I found out how."

"How do you get a radio to repeat? I never knew could do that." Venus said.

Lily bit her lip and gave a sheepish look, "Well, you can't. I cheated."

"You used magic!" Venus exclaimed flabbergasted, "How did you not get caught?"

"I'm hot…" Ishi groaned.

Lily removed the blanket from Ishi, folded it, and placed it on the small rickety coffee table in front of her, hoping it wouldn't topple from the blanket's weight. She began to fan her friend's forehead with her hand, cooling Ishi off to an extent. Ishi mumbled a thank you and went back to resting.

"I'm never going to get pregnant." Venus said, "It looks to painful, either way you look at it, from a human's or witch's point of view. Do you agree with me, Lily."

Lily had her eyes down, looking at Ishi's slightly pained expression, and gave a small nod for her reply. Ishi opened her bright hot pink eyes slowly and mumbled.

"I've got to go to the restroom."

Lily assisted Ishi getting off the bed and was panting, out of breath, finally succeeding. The woman was indeed big, and wobbled when she finally was standing, catching herself on Lily's shoulder.

Ishi grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, I just can't rest, the pillow is just uncomfortable. But now I have to go to the restroom."

The other two witches reassured their friend that she wasn't a hassle and watched as she waddled from the room, her arms wrapped around her ballooned stomach.

Venus frowned, "Hard pillows are annoying."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Well Ishi said she couldn't rest because of the pillow, and it's true, pillows that are uncomfortable are just annoying." Venus explained.

"Yeah, I suppose." Lily replied.

"I once visited Italy on a… vacation I guess you could call it, and there were no hotels in the area I was in so I had to stay at some random Italian's home. I slept in their spare room, it was really small, the bed too, and the pillow was neck breaking. I found out that it was an old wheat flour sack filled with hay, I didn't get any sleep that night." Venus shared.

Lily went over to the witch and patted her back in a playfully sympathetic gesture, "Aw, poor Venus. It's all over now, you don't have to worry about those evil pillows."

Venus rolled her eyes, "Yes, the demonic pillows tried to murder me."

They both laughed, but were cut back when they heard a slam from the kitchen, followed by, what had to be Ishi, "AAAUGH! THE MOTHER ******!"

The two witches in the living room rushed into the kitchen and cautiously, hoping they wouldn't get injured, peeked inside. Ishi was growling through her teeth, her hair messier than it's usual neat braid, her eyes were angry and she was yelling at the floor. Well, Lily thought she was yelling at the floor until she saw that apparently the pregnant woman was yelling at a magnet that was pulled from the refrigerator and thrown down. The magnet had a picture of Ishi and a man, who had to be the man named Akihito.

Ishi pointed to the picture and yelled, "I WISH YOU NEVER GOT ME PREGNANT YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Venus hesitantly spoke, "B-but, Ishi, w-weren't _you_ the one who seduced him?"

Ishi's glare moved from the picture the small witch, who squeaked at the violence in her companion's eyes, "YOU'RE JUST TAKING HIS SIDE BECAUSE YOU'RE SAD THAT LEILA GOT MURDERED!"

Venus gasped and her eyes began water, a small sob came her as she began to cry. She put her face into her hands, her shoulders heaving, and wept. Ishi's eyes turned softer as she guiltily went to the witch and cried as well, hugging Venus, trying to have it where her stomach wasn't in the way.

"I-I'm s-sorry, Venus!" Ishi apologized, "I-I didn't mean it!"

Venus sniffed and rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her arm, "Apology accepted."

Lily blinked observing the two emotional witches, "I think mood swings are a side effect to pregnancy."

Ishi stormed over to her and gripped the frog witch's shoulders tightly, shaking her, "ARE YOU ASSUMING THAT I'M BIPOLAR!"

'Yes,' Lily thought.

"Of course not!" she said instead.

The crazed anger in the pregnant woman's eyes went away into a glassy daydream haze, "Look, a rainbow…"

She released Lily from her death grip and floated over to the window that had the soft colors of a rainbow on it. It could easily be mistaken as real, the colors blended with the glass, giving it the idea it had just rained and a rainbow had appeared. Ishi hummed absentmindedly as she looked through the window.

'I have to deal with a bipolar pregnant woman and an oversensitive witch that I'm roommates with.' Lily thought, 'Why couldn't have Eruka taken me in?'

Lily frowned as she remembered that discussion:

"_Free and I live in my home together, and Mizune before him, well, before she died. There are only two rooms, my bed isn't big enough for the both of us, I'm not going to let you sleep on the floor or the couch, and you sure as hell aren't going to be sharing a room with Free." Eruka had said, "I'm really sorry, Lily, but I just don't think it would be comfortable for all three of us to live in such a small home."_

'Why, Eruka… Why?' Lily thought as she looked back to the other two witches.

…

Maka and Crona arrived into the downtown area, all of the shops open awaiting customers to roam their merchandise. The sun was laughing in the sky, letting its light shine brightly onto the streets, the heat was low and the breeze felt nice. There were several citizens scattered around, strolling on the sidewalk to get were they wanted. But there was enough to were Crona could have space without coming in physical contact with anyone.

Crona kept her eyes away from the people who were looking at her, as she stood out dressed in all black in comparison to the cheery, bright scene around her. Crona attempted to avoid the looks by turning away and blushing, but the gray that tinged her cheeks made the gazes turn to stares. Maka took her into a store and relieved Crona from some of the eyes.

The demon sword wielder was lead into a store that was labeled simply _Jane's School Supplies _(**A/N: so creativity failed me for the name) **by Maka**. **Crona followed her best friend in timidly, cowering slightly behind the blonde meister, whimpering softly when the person at the register raised an eyebrow in her direction.

The scythe technician grabbed a small red plastic shopping basket and encouraged Crona that she needn't be so self-conscious. Crona squirmed but obeyed, silently following her friend and ignoring the other five or so people in the store.

"It's okay, Crona. No one here's going to bite you." the blonde had chirped.

"Okay, Maka…" the timid girl responded.

There were rows of long shelves, there were several aisles going vertically through the store. The fluorescent lights were hanging from the ceiling, and the tiles on the ground were shiny and clean, only a few scuffmarks on them from the shoes of the hundreds of people who have walked in.

They roamed around, looking at the common supplies like pencils and erasers, and not so common like the Mighty Stapler Gun, that advertised that it was strong enough to go through human flesh from ten feet away. Both of the girls warily backed away from the product, wondering why the store even had that type of life threatening merchandise.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't walk away, I want it!"

Maka looked up and saw the familiar talking black blob atop her friend's head, "Ragnarok, you are _not_ going to get the staple gun."

"Aw, pig-tails, you're no fun." He whined playfully.

"Why are you being so nice? Not calling me meaner names?" Maka questioned suspiciously, leaning toward Ragnarok, eyes narrowed.

He rested his head on the cushion of Crona's lavender hair, eyes staring at the blonde scythe meister, "Would you rather I be rude, she-pig? I'll gladly insult you."

Maka crossed her arms, switching the plastic basket to the other hand, "Simply curious."

Ragnarok shrugged with his small shoulders, "Whatever, but I'll get that staple gun one of these days and you won't stop me."

Maka rolled her eyes and watched the little blob disappear, "How do you put up with him everyday?"

Crona shrugged with a small smile, "Eleven years, Maka."

The two skimmed around, Maka constantly putting something in her shopping basket. So far Maka had put in three packets of 12 pencils ('one can never have enough pencils!' she had said), a sharpener, a jumbo eraser, one thick pack of 200 sheets of college ruled notebook paper, and the textbook Crona needed especially for Shibusen.

Maka was informing her timid friend that she should get a bag, like a messenger bag, to hold her supplies in around school. She dragged Crona over to where all of the bags were, and gestured to the entire wall filled with different colors, shapes, and designs.

Crona looked up at all of the bags, which she was wary of them falling on her, "U-um, Maka, I'm fine. I-I don't think I really n-need one."

The blonde girl gave Crona a friendly look, "Crona, I think it'd bee easier for you to get one instead of lugging everything around in your arms."

Crona squirmed, "Whatever you say, Maka…"

In the end, after several minutes of Maka trying to persuade her poor friend into getting something bright and attention grabbing, Crona decided on one of the plainest options there was. The messenger bag was simple, with no design, it was made of stiff fabric to endure harsh treatments, was small enough to not make Crona seem too out of proportion with her thinness, and was black. It was also on 75% clearance, which made Maka agree rather than hoping Crona would pick something that wasn't the same dark dull color as everything else the depressed teenager owned.

They brought the things up to the counter and the boy at the register rung it up. He grinned at the two girls and swiped the supplies across the red laser scanner, energetically putting everything into a large plastic bag. The total had come out to be four thousand one hundred forty yen.

Crona bit her lip, "I could pay for some of it Maka. I have around two thousand yen that I've saved up after all the years I've had living with my mother."

Maka shook her head and gave Crona a sweet smile, "No, it's okay Crona. I will, I don't want to take your life savings. Especially since it seems that two thousand yen(*) is all you've gotten in the years."

Crona blushed lightly, making the boy at the counter stare at her wide-eyed at the gray in her cheeks, "O-ok, Maka."

The scythe technician reached into the pocket of her short skirt and pulled out a small wallet, handing the boy the money. When she handed it to him, the boy made sure his hand lingered on hers, grinning lustfully. Maka glared at him, her gentle green eyes angry.

He had messy sandy brown hair that reached down to his ears; the sloppy bags covered most of his forehead. His eyes were type of color you see when you mix green ocean water with dirt, and tan freckles that seemed to have been thrown at his face. The uniform he was wearing was a light blue polo, which was messily untucked, tan slacks, they were hanging low as if he didn't care or trying, pervertedly (**A/N: not a real word**), to get attention to his lower area. He had on worn and uncared for sneakers that were wearing in numerous areas, in both girls' eyes, he wasn't the most hygienic.

The boy was around seventeen and was trying to catch Maka's attention, telling her his name (Chuck) and phone number, and making some…"inappropriate" comments, some of which Crona didn't entirely get. Maka gave the boy a disgusted look and resisted the urge to go get the Mighty Stapler Gun and point it at him.

Seeing that the small cute blonde was no longer paying attention to him, Chuck turned his head to the other girl. She was strange and depressed looking, but he couldn't help but notice her dominant curves, she was good looking and cute too. The smooth pale skin of her arms bare made his mouth water and the jeans hugging tightly against her waist. He noted out of his professional state of looking at girls, that the black shirt she was wearing was thin, if she were to move at an angle were the light hit directly at one spot, he would be able to see part of what he wanted. He also liked how when she noticed him stare at her she averted her gaze shyly and blushed that strange color.

The thought that passed his mind that got him to grin again was that he knew that this charming and shy one was a pure virgin…

Maka noticed the boy's eyes on her best friend and could see that Crona was inching away slowly uncomfortably under his stare. She noted that when Crona squirmed uneasily, the boy licked his lips, and Maka gritted her teeth angrily. She was about to slap the boy and pull Crona away, but stopped when she was beat to it.

"You'd better moves your eyes elsewhere, bastard. 'Cause this little idiot isn't stupid enough to go with you." Ragnarok hissed.

The boy shot away, "Oh, shi-! What the hell is that?"

Crona smiled sheepishly, "Oh hi, Ragnarok!"

After they left the store, leaving the boy terrified and confused; one large white shopping bag in hand, the two girls walked down the sidewalk that was filling up with more people with noon coming closer. The technicians lead their way to an empty street, now in an area where no one could hear them. Crona didn't quite know why they were in a deserted place that she didn't recognize, well, Crona didn't recognize much of Death City at all, but still. Maka leaned against an abandoned brick building that had its windows broken in and boarded up with wood.

Maka shook her head, "The pervert."

Crona looked at her best friend curiously, "What?"

The blonde gave Crona a blank stare, "Crona-chan, did you not understand the boy's comments?"

The demon sword wielder scuffed her shoe against the rough cement of the sidewalk, "W-well, not all of them, but most of them."

"So you do know about," Maka coughed and her face turned a beet red, "Um…about…"

Crona's eyes widened and she squeaked, "Y-yes…"

"Okay, it would have been uncomfortable explaining it." Maka chuckled, an arm rubbing the back of her head embarrassed.

The timid girl nodded and Maka spoke again, "The way he was looking at you too."

"What do you mean?" Crona asked, tilting her head.

"Well, that boy… he was just looking at you in a way that wasn't good." Maka explained hesitantly.

"Oh." Crona answered.

"Anyways! We got the school shopping done!" the scythe meister replied optimistically holding up the plastic shopping bag.

Maka put a finger to her chin and stared at her friend, "Though, maybe we should get you some clothes too."

"N-no! I-I'm fine!" Crona objected.

"But Crona, is all you own that dress?"

Crona blinked, "W-when living with M-medusa-sama, I had enough of this same dress and undergarments to last me about a week before I needed to wash them."

The scythe technician thought for a moment, "Hmm, well, I suppose that we should still get you some clothes since that's all you have now."

"Alright," Crona agreed non-enthusiastically.

…

Soul laid idly across the sofa, eating chips as he watched, uninterestedly, golf on the screen. He was at Black*Star's apartment hanging around, originally to get away from being alone with Blair, but she was already away at Chupacabra's. He had decided to just mess around with his blue-haired best friend, but Black*Star had ran to the store when he saw that the new release of Dead Space Extraction was now available at Wal-Mart (**A/N: you will also know when your computer is old when it says you've misspelled Wal-Mart**).

So Soul was bored and was waiting for his egotistic friend to return. Tsubaki was cooking away in the kitchen for the dinner she and Black*Star would have in the next hours; it was a good idea to start cooking loads of food early with how much the beast ate.

The sound of the front door being banged open signaled Black*Star's return and Soul braced himself for the energy that his friend was going to use to kick open the bedroom door. The door flung open with his friend grinning ecstatically, holding the game case in his hand, the other in a thumbs-up.

"I HAVE IT! THE GREAT BLACK*STAR HAS GOTTEN THE GAME!" he roared.

Soul rolled his eyes as Black*Star plopped himself into the yellow beanbag that was beside him. Black*Star swung his arms behind his head and sighed happily, tossing the case onto Soul's lap. Soul placed the bag of chips he was eating onto the floor and pried open the case, the seal was opened since Black*Star predictably wanted to open it first, and took out the disc.

The weapon held the video game disc carefully, not wanting to scratch the shiny perfection, and placed it into the game console. The screen turned black and then started the opening credits, Soul saw Black*Star drool longingly at the TV, waiting to play. Soul tossed him the control and grabbed the other and they both grinned excitedly when Black*Star, who had the first player of course, pressed play.

After many, many hours of zombies, guns shooting, and death, Tsubaki pleaded with them to stop, only to grow an odd fascination with the gory actions taking place on screen, and seating herself to watch.

…

Maka had tried to persuade Crona into getting something cheery for once to wear, but the sword master declined all of the options the blonde had to offer. It had taken two or so hours for Maka to finally accept that she wasn't going to get anywhere keeping this up. After Maka sighed, feeling disappointed she couldn't get her friend to get something happy, and asked Crona what she _did_ want, the other technician stuttered out she only wanted something simple and dark.

Then, the two girls spent an hour finding anything plain and dark colored that was in the right size, and succeeded to much of the girls expectancies. Crona had told Maka that she didn't need much, only enough clothes to last three days or so because she didn't want much material items.

"But if you have that little of clothes, it'll be a hassle to wash them every couple of days." Maka had said.

"Shinigami-sama said that I was allowed to use the washer and dryer at the school." Crona had explained.

Maka cocked her head to the side, "There's a washer and dryer at Shibusen?"

Crona nodded, "Sid-sensei told me that since there were so many battles, kids would get a lot of their clothes all bloody, so they installed a washer and dryer on the floor level I live on."

"Huh, I never knew that." Maka admitted, almost sadly that she had not known.

In the end, Crona had ended up with two black T-shirts that had a Shinigami skull one side and two pairs of black jeans that had, since Maka felt Crona needed _some _design, partial holes that were meant to look worn.

Maka led Crona back to her apartment as she though, she knew that the cloth searching would have gone much faster if she had asked Crona what she wanted in the first place, and now she had even less time to tutor the poor girl! As soon as they entered the door of Maka's apartment, she grabbed Crona by the wrist and dragged her into her room, throwing the two shopping bags she had onto the bed.

"Okay, we've got to work hard to teach you as much we can!" Maka exclaimed.

The swordsman nodded, almost scared of what pain Maka would be willing to put her through to succeed in getting the amount of education she wanted Crona to have. Maka yanked the textbook from the school supplies bag and flipped it open to the first chapter, which showed the blue soul of a human.

Maka pointed at the page, "We're going to have to start with the basics, I'm glad that you have some knowledge and experience though. Okay, this is important, _a sound soul, resides in a sound mind, and a sound body_. Repeat it."

"A sound soul resides in a sound mind and a sound body." Crona repeated.

"Good, you're going to have to remember that." Maka informed, "I'm going to skip over explaining about the difference between human souls and pre-kishin ones since you already know, right?"

"Um, yes. Human souls are free of bloodshed and pre-kishin souls are ones that have killed a countless number of human souls and have become evil and their own humanity slips away." Crona felt guilty giving the explanation, knowing that she had been on the borderline of becoming a Kishin herself.

Maka hours drilling what she good into the thin sword master, getting so involved that she had only realized how long it had been when her stomach growled. The scythe technician looked down to her stomach and looked at the clock on her nightstand, six o' clock.

"Wow, it's been a while." Maka whispered biting her lip.

Crona looked at the clock too, "We spent four hours studying."

Maka chuckled, "I'm going to get a sandwich, do you want one?"

Crona looked up in surprise, "U-um, no, it's okay."

"I'm going to give you one anyways, you're too thin to be healthy."

The blonde returned with two sandwiches and handed on to Crona, "I want you to eat it."

Sighing, the swordsman obeyed and ate it, saying that she hadn't had a meal that was this good ever before. Blushing with the compliments, Maka said that it was only a sandwich and that any one could make one, that it was nothing special.

Then the scythe technician noticed something, "Hm, Soul still isn't here, he usually would, what's he doing?"

"Where is he?" Crona asked.

The blonde moved her gaze to Crona, "He would either be at Black*Star's or Kid's"

Crona hung her head at the latter boy's name, "Oh."

"Um, Crona, speaking of Kid…" Maka hesitantly started, "Are you okay from what he did to you?"

'Accusing me of following Medusa's death wish, saying I'm only tricking everyone, hitting me, and crushing my feelings. No, I haven't yet recovered from that.' Crona thought, but she knew Maka was talking about what happened in the hall.

"Don't worry, Maka, I'm fine." Crona answered.

"Crona-chan… I don't want you hurt over something like Kid, he just needs some time to get used to the idea that you're not a bad person."

There was a short moment of silence before Maka continued, "If ever hurts you again, I want you to tell, whether it be physically or emotionally, ok?"

Crona nodded, but knew that she wouldn't have the heart to do it, no matter how much the boy hated her. For some reason, when Crona thought about the small shinigami, she felt no anger toward him. No matter what he did, Crona couldn't hate so easily, she still loved, in a family way, Ragnarok, even if he did insult her and give her slight physical pain. Of course she wouldn't tell this to anyone, not even to Maka, and somehow she would find a way to keep it form Ragnarok, if he found out she was being soft hearted like that, he was sure to bully her.

'It's weird,' Crona thought, 'the one I hate is dead, Medusa is gone, so why am I still grieving?'

…

The house was silent, as it had been recently, where the only sounds were those of movements and breathing. Eruka was leaning against the doorway of the kitchen, looking into the living room, and avoiding looking at the one who was sitting on the couch. The night she and Free had returned from the party, they had immediately gone into their rooms when they got home after returning the motorcycle were they had found it. Since that yesterday night, the two had been quiet, ignoring each other.

Free spent the entire day outside, where, Eruka didn't know, nor did she really care. She was too busy being wallowed in her embarrassment, trying to focus her mind on something else, resting on reading a very thick book for the day. But then Free had to come back inside, and they were both in need of something to do.

Eruka bit her lip nervously, she couldn't visit Crona for comfort, it was still day, the students were still around. No visiting Lily either, she went to spend the day with Ishi, and who knows what stress that would cause, her sister would be tired.

Deciding to risk what was left of her will, Eruka went into the living room and sat in the chair farthest from the sofa. Twiddling her thumbs, Eruka sneakily looked at Free, he was still sitting with his face emotionless. Eruka guessed that living in a prison cell for several centuries taught Free to deal with boredom easily.

Silently taking a deep breath, Eruka then spoke, "Um, Free… a-about last night…"

The werewolf lifted his eyes from the ground, both his normal eyes and other focusing on her. Eruka's cheeks got pink, as she didn't know what to say.

"What about it?" Free asked gruffly.

Eruka chewed on her lip to a point she was concerned that it would bleed, "W-well, um, I-I…"

Shooting up from the chair she was sitting on she exclaimed, "I DON'T KNOW!"

She was about to run off toward her room when she felt a tight hold on her wrist. Her eyes clenched shut, she knew it was Free, who else was there, his hand was rough and big, and his grip was firm. Afraid of what he was going to do, Eruka tried to pull her wrist from his massive hand.

His hand tightened around the wrist, but she felt a touch at her chin. Slowly opening her black eyes, she looked up curiously into his brown and Devil's Eye. He gave a toothy grin that showed his canine teeth, he pulled her face up higher and pressed his lips down onto her own.

The frog witch's eyes widened with immense shock, but enjoyed the sensation. Though he had kissed her rather harshly, almost crushing her with his strength, Eruka didn't mind. She threw her arms around his thick neck and stood on her toes to try on force herself higher.

She felt the grin on his lips and wondered suspiciously, still kissing him though, what mischievous thoughts were going through his mind. Free wrapped a muscular arm around her waist and hiked her up into the air, breaking the contact of their lips for a moment before they continued again, Eruka being held in his arms.

He walked over to the couch as if she weighed nothing, in his opinion she did, and lied down, positioning her on his chest. He saw the dark red that engulfed the witch's face but only chuckled as she squeaked 'geko…'

Sighing, somewhat in a feeling of victory, Free rested his arms behind his neck and watched the young woman on his vast chest. Her black stared at the carpet and her large orange hat slid onto the floor, neither of them looked at the object, not moving. They were both much too comfortable, especially for Eruka, who had been wanting this for quite a while.

…

**(*)- Yen or ¥ is Japanese money, I just felt like using it. But for those who don't know, when it rang up to four thousand one hundred forty yen (4,140) it is the equivalent to forty-one dollars and forty cents ($41.40) in the U.S. Also, Crona says that she has saved up two thousand yen (2,000) for her life saving, basically like twenty (20) dollars. Just thought I'd slip that in!**

**A/N: So I know that I rushed a bit in the last scene with Crona and Maka, but I just wanted to **_**finish**_** this chapter! So finally a bit of romance kicks in, hooray! I've already planned when things turn around for Kid, bwa-ha-ha. I am going to spoil a bit and say that you're going to have to wait a bit after Chapter 9 for the KidXCrona to finally start. So, please review! If you don't it'll make me uber sad T.T, not energetic enough to come up with death threat.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thank you all for reviewing and thanks to those you wished a happy birthday (all of you make me feel all happy inside =). I was planning for this to be a shorter chapter, but I kind of failed, unlike last chapter that was thirteen pages (in 10 font), this one is like, maybe eight to nine pages. **

**Responses to reviews: I've decided to do this with the reviews I feel like replying to. **

**PrimitiveRadioGoddess: Thanks for the info that it's spelled espresso =] I'm really glad when you review because you give me motivation **_**and**_** advice.**

**Afgncaap8: Reading your review, I guess I should have thought about some of those details like Raggy asking for a "very much", but I wasn't really thinking. And I'm sorry you hate jeans with holes in them, to be honest, I'm not to big of a fan myself. I was originally going to give Crona just regular black jeans, but I got inspiration with the holey jeans, so I put them in. (They're going to be in a scene in a later chapter with Kid, so no complaints!) **

**Elunamoon: I am aware that more Kid and Crona interaction is needed, but don't worry (this goes for everyone), I'm still in the beginning of heading into my planned storyline, so all of you who are chewing me out for more Kid and our lovable little Demon Sword, the next chapter will be good.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater *Sobs uncontrollably * but the OCs are miiiinnnee! **

…

Chapter 7:

There's not a test soon… right?

Crona woke up groggily to the silence of her room; her head was throbbing slightly, probably from the intense studying that Maka had endured for the past two days. Sitting up, Crona blushed as she pulled her shirt down, she had forgotten she had slept in her new clothes, not yet used to her stomach being revealed from underneath her T-shirt when she moved her arms too much. Maka had said to keep the loans from Saturday as well out of her kindness, Maka had also choked out that she would give the prank underwear to the swordsman too.

The kindness the scythe technician gave made Crona happy, the unfamiliar feeling of someone being concerned for her made the sword master warm inside. Looking at the clock Maka had also kindly given her, Crona saw that it was six twenty-four in the morning. It was now Monday and Maka had made sure to train Crona to the fullest extent for preparations for today. Classes at Shibusen started at eight, so Crona had about an hour and a half before needing to rush to Class Crescent Moon. But she knew it would probably be wise to get ready now, just so she wouldn't have to scramble around getting everything done in five minutes to avoid being late on her first day of classes.

Getting up from the corner she now decided to have as her "bed", it just seemed more safe and comfortable than the real one, and she got out the other pair of jeans and a T-shirt, the ones she had recently gotten two days ago. Crona felt a bit uncomfortable with the fact that the black jeans had holes in them, even though they had strings of the same material to not have anything be revealed, but Maka got them for her, and there was nothing she could do about it. Crona thought that it would bring more attention to her, which Maka probably wanted, and Crona wasn't a fan of attention.

Luckily the holes were small, about the size of a nickel, and each of the two pairs of jeans only had two to three holes on them. Almost unwillingly, Crona took of the current jeans she had on and put on the others, buttoning then on and zipping the zipper, content that it wasn't loose and that it didn't fall. Putting on the other shirt over her head, Crona could feel Ragnarok starting to wake up.

He came out and pinched her nose, "Dammit, Crona, why'd you wake up so friggin' early?"

"Because I don't want anything to go wrong on my first day of-"

"Never mind, I don't care, I really don't care." Ragnarok interrupted.

Crona pouted, "Then why did you ask?"

He hit her head lazily, not enough energy to cause pain, "I'm not very intelligent first waking up. Maybe that's why."

Crona gathered her school supplies, thanking her blonde friend dearly through her mind, and swung the black messenger bag over her shoulder. She smiled contently, happy that she was ready to an extent, still lacking the courage to go into an alien area without stuttering to a point people thought she had speech impairment.

Ragnarok snorted, "With what you have on, you look like a goth emo slut."

"Ragnarok, shut up!" Crona whined.

Grumbling at her partner's rudeness, Crona sat down on her bed and laid her bag beside her. She lied down to stretch out her back from being in a ball all the time and stared at the high stone ceiling, resting her head on the soft, to her at least, pillow.

"Geko, may I come in?"

Crona let her eyes leave the crack in the stone above her go to the window. The familiar frog witch was standing on her window still, staring at her, waiting for the approval of entrance. Crona nodded and watched as Eruka leaped from the air and landed on the bed with a soft _thump_. The witch transformed into her normal body and Crona sat up to make room for Eruka on the bed.

Eruka cocked her head to the side, "What's with the new apparel?"

"Um, Maka got them for me. She said I needed more clothes than just my one dress." Crona explained.

"You know I could have gone to your old house and gotten the rest of your clothes." Eruka stated.

The lavender haired teenager squirmed, "Well, yes, but them Maka would ask how I managed to get them."

Eruka shrugged, "Okay, at least you got new clothes. I see that you've gotten a school bag too. Is today your first time going to Shibusen's classes?"

Crona nodded, "Yes, and I hope everything turns out okay. I don't know how to deal with things going wrong."

"Of course."

"How did you get here anyways?" Crona asked, "Is Free down there outside?"

Eruka shook her head, "No, I got here myself."

"Did you walk?"

"I, um, used magic." Eruka admitted.

"How did you do that without getting caught?"

Eruka flipped the hair from her eyes, "I was in frog form at the time. Meisters can't sense my witch's soul inside of a frog's body."

"That's weird, but useful in your opinion." Crona said, "Oh, um, how are things going with you and Free?"

The frog witch's eyes sparkled as she started to gush about what had happened the day before, words pouring out of her mouth at an intense speed.

"… and then he kissed me and it was so romantic! I almost just fainted there on the ground, but luckily I didn't because if I did then he wouldn't have kissed me as long! Then he picked me up and I was in heaven, have you ever noticed how muscular he is? And he took us to the couch and I lied on his chest and I got tired so I fell asleep on him, and it was _wonderful_! Don't you think?" Eruka poured out.

Eyes wide, Crona nodded, amazed at the inhuman ability of Eruka's words. She was happy that Free and Eruka finally worked things out, it seemed Crona didn't have to worry about keeping an eye on them now. The witch beside her was smiling contently at the memory that happened a short while ago, twirling a strand of bleach white hair around her finger, the orange hat on her head lopsided.

"It sounds like you're really happy." Crona stated.

"Mmhmm…" Eruka hummed delightfully, her eyes closed.

Then shot up, her eyes opening in panic, "Oh crap."

"Wha-" Crona started, but then she felt it too.

The familiar soul wavelength of her friend was rounding the corner into the hall Crona's room was on. Eruka poofed into a frog and hopped into a surprised Crona's hands, her coal eyes darting frantically to the metal door in worry of being revealed.

"Quick, toss me out the window." Eruka whispered.

"You want me to what?" Crona asked shocked.

"Please!" the frog cried desperately.

Standing atop her bed, Crona raised her arms as high as she could to the window of her room, thrusting Eruka into the air. After throwing the frog out of the window Crona saw Eruka land perfectly onto the ground below still in her frog form and poof gone, the meisters of Shibusen oblivious to the witch.

A knock was heard on the metal door of the room, "I'm coming in."

Maka entered the room just as Crona fell back onto the bed in a sitting position, the blonde blinked, "Oh, you've already gotten everything together. That's great!"

Crona slid off the bed, "Y-you're here early. Class doesn't start in the next hour."

Maka beamed, "I wanted to take you early so I could explain some things."

"O-okay."

Crona swung the messenger bag over her shoulder once more and let Maka guide her out the door. Crona walked somewhat bravely due to the fact no one was in the halls, no one to stare at her. Maka stopped in front of Class Crescent Moon and jiggled the door handle, it was locked, the lights weren't on inside.

"I-it's locked." Crona stated the obvious fact, "H-how are we going to get inside?"

Maka beamed, "Don't worry, since I have a habit to come in pretty early, Professor Stein gave me a spare key to the room."

The scythe technician had her own small backpack over her shoulders, it was a soft pink and had small blue plush dog as a key chain that was dangling from one of the zippers. Taking it off, Maka unzipped a small pocket on the side and took out the shiny key, putting it into the keyhole of the door and unlocking it. Turning the handle now, Maka was able to open the door, going inside and flicking on the light.

Crona blinked in awe at the large classroom in front of her. The large bleachers that where stretched along the wall, the chalk board that was opposite of the seats had the correct date written on it beforehand so that it was ready for today. Crona's shoes tapped lightly on the checkered tiles of the classrooms floor, the audible footsteps continuing until they reached the blonde meister that was already setting her things at her place in the bleachers.

The blonde patted the place to the right of her, "Put your things here so that you'll sit beside me."

Nodding, Crona set her bag on the area next to Maka's on the long extending bench, "Okay."

Grabbing her wrist, Maka dragged Crona down the steps that led into the classroom bleachers, their shoes making loud noises, the metal of Maka's "boots" clinking, and Crona's old-fashioned thickly armored ones thumping.

"M-Maka-chan, what is it?" Crona asked, wondering why she was once again being leaded by force.

"Well since your things are already dropped off in the classroom, I want to take you to the mission board for your first task." Maka explained.

In front of the large board, Maka began to read the missions labeled 'available' on the panel. Crona skimmed over the words, trying to find one that seemed fairly easy and interesting. Crona felt Maka tap her on the shoulder and turned her head in the direction of the blonde, Maka pointed up to a specific bulletin that read 'Ruins'.

"That one seems interesting." Maka stated.

The blonde turned her head side to side, looking for who she needed, then spotted the woman in her usual quarter. Maka walked up to the plump woman behind what looked like a ticket booth, the woman looked somewhat like a toad. She was rather large with a sagging face and bulging eyes; her thin lips were set into a permanent frown.

"I would like some more information on one of the missions, please." Maka requested sweetly.

"Which one?" the woman grumbled (**A/N: I have no idea what her name is… do they even mention it?)**.

"The 'Ruins' one, please."

The toad woman turned to an ancient computer that was at her left, typing away at it, finding what she needed to, "The mission is at an old basilica that had crumbled in and was abandoned for about a century or so. Every one who seems to go near it doesn't come back and several evil souls have been sensed around the area. It is located in the deserts, about two-hundred miles out."

Maka turned to Crona, "That sounds good, let's take it."

"O-okay, Maka-chan." Crona agreed.

"Tell me the names of all the meisters." The toad woman instructed.

Maka blinked, "Crona, you can go wait in the classroom, okay? I'll be there in a just a sec, I need to do this."

Crona nodded, "Alright."

Maka watched as her friend's thin figure went in to the classroom and was out of ear's reach, the toad woman spoke, "Meister's names."

"Oh, sorry!" Maka apologized to the mission assigner, "Maka Albarn, Crona… erm… just Crona, and…"

Maka leaned in slightly and whispered, "I'd like to have Death the Kid join our group as well."

…

Crona sat on the wood bench of the bleachers, waiting patiently for Maka to return. She wondered what the mission would be like along with Maka; Crona had always completed any task she had alone, excluding Ragnarok. What would it be like to have someone working along? It would probably be easier with help, to be able to wipe out more enemies with combined power.

The scythe technician entered thought the door and jogged back up the stairs to Crona and slid into spot next to her, smiling.

"We have the mission now! We'll be heading out to the area in the desert at about four o' clock to reach it by six or seven." Maka explained.

"Understood." Crona answered realizing it was a habit she used with Medusa.

"Hm, it's about seven thirty, people should be coming to class soon." Maka stated looking at the hand clock that was hung above the door.

Crona took out her textbook from her bag, flipping it open and skimming the context, reviewing what she could. While Crona tried to memorize the words on the page, giving her chance to see if she possibly had photographic memory. After two or so minutes of studying the page, Crona concluded that she did not, in fact, have the ability of a photographic memory.

"Here they come," Crona heard Maka say beside her.

Looking at the door, people were trickling through the doorway, their bodies spread out across the bleachers. Crona tried to sink back in her seat in order to make sure none of their gazes looked in her direction, and luckily no one even glanced near her direction. After a few more minutes, more students filtered in, the seats becoming more populated, and friendly chatter filling the air.

"There's Soul." Maka pointed out.

Crona tore her eyes away from her determined studying and saw the familiar scythe weapon slouch over to them, plopping into the space on the other side of Maka resting his arms behind his head. Maka began to have a small conversation with him, telling him that she and him would be going on a mission that evening with Crona.

Soul merely nodded, "Okay, it's cool to help out newbies."

When Crona went back to reading the textbook, Maka leaned closer to Soul to whisper, "I signed Kid up to come with us too, but he and Crona don't know that yet."

Soul chuckled, "Trying to get him to stop hating her by forcing him to go with. Kind of lame to plan things like that, but it's cool in a way, I guess."

Maka rolled her eyes and leaned her elbows onto the desk, resting her chin in her palms. As more students came in, so did Tsubaki, dragging in a grumbling Black*Star, who was unhappy because he felt she was depriving him of coming in a few minutes late to have all the eyes on him with his "big show".

Tsubaki talked calmly to her meister that he shouldn't be late so much and that she wanted to get him to school faster before he started to play his video game again. They sat in the row above Crona, Tsubaki leaning down to ask her how she and Maka were. Crona stammered that she was doing fine and Maka said the same, only without the stutters.

Maka turned to face Crona, "Hey, Crona, I want to warn about the teacher."

Crona blinked, "U-um, a-alright."

"Well, our teacher is Professor Stein," Maka started, "He's pretty, um, crazy… I mean, he's kind of insane, and he loves to have us do dissection lessons."

"Dissect what?" Crona asked.

"The last time he said he'd find a way to get a panda bear for dissection."

"Aren't panda bears endangered?" Soul asked from beside the technician.

"Yes."

Crona bit her lip, Professor Stein, wasn't he the one who barged in before she killed Maka? Crona thought so, Maka had yelled out his names several times when he was fighting her. He had seemed very serious and had a small amount of madness at the time. But now as Maka began to explain more, he seemed a bit clumsy and amusing, excluding the times he was in 'Dissection' mode, as Maka called it.

Looking toward the door again she saw Liz and Patty waltz in, Patty more skipping, climbing the bleachers and walking into the row Crona was on. Liz sat down on the other side of Crona and Patty left a gap in between her and her sister, most likely where Death the Kid sat.

'Don't let him sit there, don't let him sit there, please, please, don't let Death the Kid sit there!' Crona pleaded in her thoughts.

Said boy glided into the room, hands in his black slacks a blank expression on his face. He walked over to where Liz and Patty were and was about to make his way into his seat when Liz spoke.

"Hey, Rick, why don't you come sit next to me for this class?" she called a row down.

A boy with wavy brown hair and hazel eyes wearing a red T-shirt and jeans looked up at her. Liz waved him over and he got up from his current spot and went up to her row, squeezing past Kid, and sitting down beside the pistol.

Death the Kid seemed to have the question 'what the hell?' written in his eyes. Liz pointed in the other direction, making it obvious that she wasn't going to let him sit there.

KIN KON KAN KON.

With a guarded expression, Kid briefly looked at Crona; she left his gaze, staring back down at her book, watching as he walked to another aisle.

Sighing in relief, Crona heard the sound of rolling from outside the door, the noise getting louder. She saw as the psychotic teacher tripped over the metal threshold of the door (**A/N: the thing he always trips over, I found out what it was called**), swishing into the middle of the class on his back, his eyes looking at them upside down. He took out his copy of the teacher's textbook and flipped through it, finding the right page.

"Open your textbooks to page 118, please!" he instructed.

As all of the students, including Crona, went to that page, Maka whispered, "Not a dissection this time. Rare."

The lesson he thought was on Soul Protect, the spell used for witches to guard their soul, "Soul Protect, so far for you students, cannot be detected. More ultimately powerful meisters, like Death Scythe's, four stars, and shinigami's can tell whether one is using Soul Protect. Witches have not been sensed as much since the spell was invented, so you must be cautious."

Stein scribbled things on the board, making charts and illustrations, Crona copied down everything he drew or wrote, jotting down what she could of what he was explaining. She regretted not having much wonderful practice at writing, but she managed to messily write things so that they were eligible to her, she was proud that she was able to write so fast with Stein saying things at the speed of light.

Some of the things he taught, Crona was lost in understanding, but some of it she could comprehend. Maka stared as Crona struggled with some of the things Stein was saying; the pink sword master was too busy paying attention to the professor to notice the blonde's eyes on her. Maka knew that Crona needed more studying if she wanted to catch up to the level the class was already at, so she would have to work with the timid girl. The blonde began to grin as she thought of a plan to help Crona with her education, Maka pulled her expression into one of acted concentration when Crona turned to look at her, not wanting her to know what was on her mind.

Crona knew that Stein was finally almost done with his summary of Soul Protect when his speech became more slowly paced. Sighing with relief, Crona could write the rest of her notes at a normal speed.

When Stein was done with his Soul Protect lesson, he grin sadistically and said, "Now it's time for dissection."

Crona paled as he rolled out a large cage into the middle of the classroom with a small baby panda inside. It was nibbling on a piece of bamboo, oblivious of what its fate was. The baby panda let its small black eyes look at the crowd of people, letting out a small cry in call of its mother.

Letting out a wicked chuckle, Stein neared the baby panda on his wheel chair. The animal trembled as the psychotic man's glasses glinted evilly, stroking his metal scalpel.

"Now class…" Stein started with a deep haunting voice, "Bears are interesting animals, all animals are, and I want to see how this one in particular ticks before it goes extinct."

Stein unlatched the lock that held the panda in the cage, letting it step out of its confinement. Most of the girls had their eyes widen at the panda's cuteness while some others began to cry for the small animal. Crona raised a mental eyebrow at the over emotional girls and was glad that Liz and Maka beside her were just watching warily.

The professor had a large brown restraint belt in his hand and secured the panda bear to a large and strong table. His laugh was audible as he twirled the scalpel in his fingers with professional precision, when the tip of the sharp knife touched the skin of the panda, it let out a mournful cry.

Crona winced when Stein dragged the knife through the flesh, the red blood staining the white fur and the cry of pain from the animal. The professor held a cloth to the bear's nose and waited until it passed out, preceding his actions. Ripping the layers of skin away from the stomach, the blood gushing out and the intestines within slipping out from the large shallow hole of the body.

Crona leaned toward a cringing Maka, "Um, why is he dissecting it again."

Maka turned to her, "He really doesn't give a reason, he does it of his own accord calling it a 'lesson.'"

"Okay." Crona nodded, watching as Stein removed the intestines from the stomach, the long strings dangling from his hand, soaked in blood.

Next, the internal organs were taken out, the heart set on the table for "later examination" Stein said. After five of the students vomited, Stein called them wusses and said anyone who couldn't handle it to leave. About three fourths of the class left. Leaving Crona, Maka, Soul, Patty (who was grinning madly at the blood, Liz left), Black*Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, and a couple other students.

Stein continued on his experiment, content now that the squeamish students were either in the nurse's office or waiting outside in the hall. Since Crona didn't know what to do while the professor just enjoyed himself to his bloodlust, and seeing that everyone else was trying to find a way to distract themselves, Crona began to doodle on the back of her note taking paper.

She knew she wasn't the best artist in the world, she didn't have lots of experience of holding the pencil properly, but Crona felt that her meaningless drawings were good enough to where you could tell what it was supposed to be. At first she absent-mindedly drew a shaded in arrow with a python coiled around it, but realizing what she had drawn, it reminded her of her mother, so she erased it.

Just letting her hand sketch on its own, Crona thought aimlessly, wondering what a wandering mind would make her imagination conjure up onto the paper. Every so often she would hear Maka whisper 'ugh' in between her reading a book to look up at what Stein was doing at the moment.

"What are you drawing?" Maka asked quietly.

Crona shook away from her cloudiness and turned to the blonde, "I don't know."

Tilting her head, Maka looked down at the paper, Crona looked down too, "It's a soul."

Maka was right; the object that was drawn into the paper was a soul undoubtedly. It even had the marks around the edges that signified it was bobbing in the air, to Crona's surprise. Maka smiled and complimented that she did a good job and Crona stuttered that she knew it wasn't that good.

Crona went back into her state of haziness to continue her oblivious drawing, interrupted about five minutes later. The bell had rung, signaling the end of the class period, and that it was time for lunch since it was one already.

Students from outside the hall filtered in, closing their eyes to not see the torn panda, and retrieved their things. Maka shot up and shoved everything into her backpack, stretching from sitting, while Crona lowered her things into her bag as well. Crona looked down at what else she had added to her bored-created drawing, and she sucked in a quick breath when she noticed what it was. The soul that she had drawn now had three stripes on the right side that ended in the middle. With horror, Crona knew she had drawn Death the Kid's soul.

…

Maka led Crona to the lunchroom with the rest of their friends, Maka watching Crona take in the new scenery. The cafeteria had many long tables set out horizontally down the large room, hundreds of students filled the tables, chattering in between bites of their food.

The group of friends stood in line, Crona muttering she wasn't hungry to only have her best friend threaten her that she needed to eat thin as she was. Soul had laughed at his partner's threat, telling Crona that Maka could get motherly aggressive. Which only made Crona panic since she didn't like it when _her_ mother was aggressive, but Maka reassured her that she wouldn't be that violent.

Black*Star had piled his plate high with meat and sweets saying that a god like him needed to eat large amounts of food. Ragnarok agreed with Black*Star and wanted his tray, Crona said no and they settled, when Maka wasn't listening, that he could have her lunch apple. After Crona convinced Maka that she had indeed eaten her apple, lying, Maka relaxed and began to talk.

They were all at one table, all but Kid, who was walking past them, but was stopped when Soul yanked him down into the spot next to him. Kid silently argued with the scythe about being there but gave up when he was loosing the argument. Crona kept her eyes away from that direction, not wanting to see the shinigami's glare in her direction.

The only ones speaking to Death the Kid, who obviously did not want conversation, was Soul, Black*Star, and Tsubaki, the last two not informed on what he had done. Throughout the lunch period, Crona kept her eyes away from anything but the stain on the table in front of her.

Crona felt a set of eyes on her, an intensity that made her uncomfortable. Looking in the direction of the one who was staring at her and met the yellow eyes of Death the Kid. She blushed and looked away, biting her lip as she thought of how he got Medusa's glare just right.

After lunch was over, they threw away their trash and went back into the classroom. Stein was waiting for them, he was cleaning off the remaining blood off of his dissection table, grinning at his students. He announced that Shinigami had called him and they were to have a free period for the rest of class, receiving numerous cheers from the students.

"But if I hear that you caused any trouble, one of you will have the punishment of helping me in my lab for a night." Stein threatened. All of the cheering stopped.

Maka beamed, "Great! A free period."

"W-what's that?" Crona asked.

"That we don't have to do any work and we can just talk." Maka explained.

"Oh."

The technician gestured Crona to follow her, "I want you to meet a few more people."

Crona timidly followed behind Maka, not really wanting to meet new people, new people scared her. She approached seven people that were sitting in a bunch, talking randomly. One of them kept trying to get one pink haired girls attention, but failed. He was bald, except for two towers of black hair that were on the side of his head, he had a on a white dress shirt with a black vest over it and black pants with glasses. There was another boy beside him that had brown hair and weird glasses that Crona couldn't describe.

There were two girls, one of them with the short bright pink hair and green eyes in a light green uniform, and the other had long brown hair with brown eyes, she wore the same uniform. Leaning back against the desk was another boy with dark skin, he had black hair that was braided into short locks, and glasses framed his black eyes. An arm was behind his head and he was fanning himself with a baseball cap, he was wearing a white jersey and jeans. The two others looked the same, they both had dark skin, but lighter than the other boy, with short blonde hair and wide blue eyes. They both wore overalls and they were sitting side by side on the desk. Crona couldn't tell which was a boy or which was a girl.

Maka brought her over to them, "Hi, you guys."

They all looked up to Maka and waved, the girls greeting them, "What's up, Maka?"

"I wanted to introduce Crona to you." she said gesturing to the girl hiding behind her.

Everyone tried to see the cowering girl, smiling encouragingly, until Crona finally scooted into appearance. Happy she had finally showed herself, Maka pointed each of the people as she named them.

"That's Ox Ford, the boy beside him is his partner, Harvar, that's Kim and her partner Jacqueline (A/N: is that how you spell it?), that's Kilik and his two partners, Fire and Thunder (A/N: I have no idea what their names are)."

Crona smiled sheepishly at each of them as they greeted her individually, "What about me!"

They all were startled by the sudden outburst, Crona thought at first it was Ragnarok, but the voice was different, and it wasn't Black*Star. Looking up Crona saw a boy leaning over the row above them, he had blonde hair and wide blue eyes, and there was a grin on his face. He was wearing a long sleeved blue shirt and ragged, worn jeans.

Ragnarok popped out of Crona's spine, "Hey, you stole one of my lines!"

All but Maka, of course, stared at the small blob that had appeared. Crona told Ragnarok to calm down and to be quieter.

The blonde boy's eyes widened, "Whoa, what's that!"

Maka put her hands on her hips, "It's a Ragnarok."

"Hey!" Ragnarok snapped.

"And I didn't introduce you because I wouldn't have thought Crona would have been comfortable with you around." Maka explained.

He laughed, "I would've found a way to introduce myself!"

A boy sighed beside him. He had dark black hair and was dark skinned with brown eyes, his hands were folded in front of him as he shook his head, and he had on a tan sweater and wore beige slacks. The first boy with blonde hair took a daring attempt and swung himself over the long desk and landed on his feet with a _thud_.

Shaking out his hair with a flip, he thrust his hand toward the shy girl with lavender hair (a.k.a: Crona), "Why, hello, new girl. Let me make myself known, I am Shingo Taichi!"

Taking his hand hesitantly, Crona shook it softly, "Sh-shingo?"

"Ha! That's lame!" Ragnarok insulted.

Shingo scrunched his nose, "I don't like my first name so much, so just call me by Taichi-kun."

"Heh, smart move." Ragnarok threw in.

"Quiet, Ragnarok. O-okay, Taichi-kun." Crona replied.

He winked at her and squeezed her hand before pulling away. Why did he make her uncomfortable? Taichi called for the boy that was sitting beside him, who unwillingly came down to greet the new girl, preferring to just wave silently.

Taichi swung an arm around his friend and introduced him, "This is my weapon Ryzo Norio! He's a bit of a grouch, he always so serious with his studies."

"N-nice to meet you." Crona stuttered.

Ryzo gave her a polite nod in reply, pushing away from his optimistic partner and walking back up to his seat. Crona blinked, she knew which one was the pessimistic of the two. Ragnarok tangled Crona's hair out of boredom, tying little knots that would be impossible to get out with his sphere shaped hands. Ignoring Maka's glares as she threatened to Maka Chop him for being a little bastard.

"Ha, but I am a little bastard!" he cackled.

Luckily for him, Crona said that Maka shouldn't try to stop him since he wouldn't listen anyways, and just let him do what he wanted. Ragnarok stuck his overly large tongue out at returned to tying knots, letting out a little laugh when he made a small bow out of the lavender locks of Crona's hair, only for him to pout when Crona lifted her hand to untie it.

KIN KON KAN KON.

Everyone grinned, other than Crona and Ryzo, that the school day was over. Kilik's group, because it seemed like they listened to him, packed their things and said good-bye, some of them pairing up to go somewhere together. Crona swung her bag over shoulder and headed for the door when Maka caught up with her.

"Do you want me to walk with you to your room?" she asked.

"N-no, I-it's fine, Maka. I-I can go by myself." Crona stuttered.

Maka nodded, "Okay. There's going to be lots of people to push through though, once you get closer to the lower levels, no one will be there."

"Okay," Crona replied.

Maka watched as the thin figure dressed in black disappeared down the hallway. Turning around she saw another body pass a few feet away in black as well, Death the Kid. Finding her chance, Maka approached the one who she dearly wanted punch at the moment.

"Hello, Kid-kun." She greeted sweetly.

The shinigami jumped and turned to the sickly sweet voice that was Maka Albarn at the moment. The blonde had a fake smile plastered across her face, her deep emerald eyes burning evilly.

"Y-yes, Maka-san?" he asked nervously.

"I'd like to have a 'talk' with you~." she answered, closing her eyes and giving a sugary smile.

Kid felt frightened, knowing that he most likely would regret Maka finding him, "W-what about?"

She reopened her eyes and looked at him with fake innocence, rocking on her heels, hands held behind her back, "Oh just someone named," she cast a dark look in his direction and dropped her syrupy act, "Crona."

His golden eyes widened, 'Aw, man…'

"W-what do you w-want to talk about the Demon Sword?" he stumbled.

"One thing I would like you to stop calling Crona by is the name Demon Sword." Maka ordered.

"I'm not going to call the Demon Sword by-"

"You will call her by Crona!"

"Fine, Crona." He sighed, running the unfamiliar word across his tongue, "But I still think it-"

Maka glared, "I would also like it if you called Crona by the feminine pronoun."

"This, I will not agree to." Kid stated stubbornly.

Maka grinded her teeth, "And why not?"

"Too much of my pride would be taken away and I don't want to argue with you my real reasons because I know that you'd physically injure me." Kid explained.

Maka let out a 'hmph' but continued, "Anyways, I wanted to talk to you because I wanted you to do me two favors."

"They are…?"

The blonde beamed happily, "The first is that you go on a mission with me this evening."

Kid relaxed, "Okay, that's simple."

"And Crona." She added in.

"Wait- what?" he exclaimed, "W-why?"

"Because I said. And if you don't come, you're sure to get a Maka Chop."

Kid groaned.

"Then after that I want you to help Crona with her studies by tutoring her." Maka beamed.

Kid tensed and straightened himself, "I'm not going to participate in what I hate the most."

Glad that no one was in the halls but them, Maka jabbed a finger into his chest, "Listen, Kid." She growled, "Crona deserves a whole heck of a lot better than the treatment she has received. She is a very fragile and sensitive person with all the abuse she has gone through in her life. She's been locked inside a pitch-black room without food or water for days! I want her to finally be happy in her life and content in the world, so if you hurt her again, I will make sure to make you suffer.

"So, the mission is in an hour or two, so be ready."

Death the Kid swallowed to find his throat dry, Maka gave him one last glare before she flipped away, stomping down the hallways. He cast his yellow cast angrily on the floor, gritting his teeth. That damn Demon Sword was absolutely making his life a living hell.

Clenching his hands into fists, Death the Kid walked in the opposite direction of where Maka went, fuming as he walked home. He didn't see that Soul was watching from the classroom the whole time, only acknowledging him when he came up behind him.

"Dude, that was an intense conversation with Maka you had." He chuckled.

Kid turned around to the white haired weapon, "You heard, huh?"

"Yeah, where you going?"

Kid sighed, "Home to see if Liz and Patty will cooperate to go on the mission."

Soul chuckled, "Good luck with that, man. I don't think they'd be willing to cut their silent treatment short."

"It's worth a shot…"

Death the Kid slumped away, grumbling and cursing under his breath. He knew that it wouldn't go well with the sisters. When he came out of his room today for school, they made sure to hide his supplies well, and in a big mansion, it was very, very difficult. I suppose that's what you expect from girls who lived on the streets.

'Let's see how this goes…' Kid thought.

…

"No."

Liz and Patty were at a café when he finally found them; Soul had decided to tag along with Kid to see how it would go. With a cup of steaming coffee in front of her, Liz had declined the mission that night automatically, making Death the Kid feel as if he wanted to cry.

"Liz, you and Patty have to come with me." He growled.

Scoffing, Liz replied, "Why do we need to?"

"Because if you don't Maka will gut me alive."

The elder pistol shrugged, "Maybe it's what you deserve."

Liz turned away from him and continued her conversation with Patty about the recall on a certain brand of cosmetics. Kid walked away from the café mumbling, he just wanted to lay down on his bed and complain, Soul put a hand on his shoulder.

"Man, what are you going to do?" Soul asked, "You know you can't skip out."

Kid turned his golden eyes to look into Soul's crimson red ones, "Don't worry, I have a backup."

Soul raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

Death the Kid nodded, "Believe it or not, this has happened before."

Kid saw Soul's odd expression, he cleared things up, "Not like with the Demon Sw-Crona, just that Liz has ignored me like this before."

"What did you do?" Soul asked.

"She asked me if she was a potential girlfriend for me." Kid answered glumly.

Soul laughed, "Ouch."

Kid nodded, "Yes indeed, ouch. She ignored me for a week or two, and Patty didn't want to go on missions if her sister wasn't, so I needed something else.

"What was it?"

"Two other hand pistols," Kid answered, "They aren't human weapons, but they work and release my soul wavelength. They aren't as good as Liz and Patty, and using them I can barely complete missions, but they do work. So it looks like I'll have to use them again. I kept them because I knew that Liz would ignore me again over some other unimportant matter, but I guess now it's more than unimportant to her."

Soul put his hands in his pockets and put his weight on one leg, "At least you don't have to be faced with the wrath of a girl named 'Maka.'"

"Yeah…"

…

Maka knocked on Crona's metal cell door, waiting for the soft voice to allow her in. When her friend invited her in, the blonde stepped inside and sat next to the girl curled up in her fond corner. Crona smiled at her best friend and asked what brought her to her room.

The scythe technician laughed nervously, "I just wanted to tell you about something, two things actually…"

Crona blinked, "W-what are they?"

"Um, the first thing is about our mission tonight."

"What about it…?"

"Heh-heh, well, I kind of signed up Death the Kid, so he's going to be going with us." Maka let out.

Crona's ice blue eyes widened and she squeaked.

"The other is that sometime after the mission I want him to tutor you, like on a study date. Since he's a shinigami, he should know more than most of the students, including me…"

The sword master began to gnaw on her lip, tears welling up in her eyes, 'Oh no, this won't end up good.'

Thinking that her friend was beginning to cry because of sadness and fear instead of panic, Maka began to console her friend, "Don't worry, Crona-chan. I promise, if Kid hurts you, I'll make sure that he ends up regretting it."

Crona took a deep breath, "Okay, Maka."

"Great!" Maka exclaimed popping up, "The mission will start in about an hour, meet me in the downtown area by the fountain, you've seen it before right?"

Crona nodded and Maka beamed, "Then I'll see you there!"

The demon sword wielder watched as the scythe meister ran out her room to go get Soul. Curling into her corner, Crona sighed. She really didn't want her first mission to be with Death the Kid, somehow she would find a way to make him hate her more, and she didn't want that.

Looking at the clock, Crona saw that she would go in about forty-five minutes to be a little early. So she just sat in her ball and closed her eyes, wondering if Death the Kid was feeling the same as she was. No, he wouldn't feel as she did, he would be feeling hate, not fear.

Sighing, Crona whispered her mother's lullaby.

…

**A/N: So I didn't put wonderful effort into it, but I just want to skip to writing all the good parts. Which I can't do. So, next chapter it's going to have more of Kid and Crona in the same area. Please review, it would be very greatly appreciated.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: So I am now officially thirteen (*weeps*), and still, thanks to all you reviewed (*shakes finger at those who didn't*). The name of this title is kind of long, but I thought it fit, since I thought it was kind of funny that Crona and Death the Kid are totally symmetrical, except their hair. So anyways, put my lame acknowledgment aside, to the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, even though I did ask for it as a present for my birthday… **

…

Chapter 8:

The Teamwork of Two is Symmetrical, but What if Both of the Teammates Aren't?

Death the Kid stood inside his large walk-in closet, trying to remember where he had put his backup hand pistols. Liz and Patty knew that he had them, they really didn't mind either, as long as he only used them when they were mad at him, so he didn't hide them. Kid had just forgotten where he put them, and that brought him to searching his room to find the lifeless weapons.

Rummaging through his closet he finally was able to yank to two guns from a tightly packed box, the metal's shine was dull, unlike the everlasting polish of the Thompson twins forms as pistols. Walking out of his room, he heard Patty talking about good waffles went with banana and Liz throwing in comments. When Kid walked passed them to reach the door, the sisters looked at the pistols in his hand briefly before turning away from him.

Sighing Death the Kid left his mansion to where he was supposed to wait for the Demon Sword, or Crona, as he now had to call it, and Maka with Soul.

Soul had slipped in to Kid that they were to meet at the fountain in downtown Death City, since Maka hadn't told him the location. Death the Kid guessed that maybe Maka hadn't told him so he wouldn't show up, thus, giving her a reason to injure him in a way Kid did not wish to imagine.

While walking down the main streets of the Death City, he saw several people, girls especially, whispering quietly to themselves while staring at him. He rolled his eyes, even if he was the son of death, it's not like he was too terribly special, though he was indeed powerful. Kid had always hated it when girls would give him seductive smiles and wear revealing things, excluding Liz and Patty since they didn't hit on him, batting their eyelashes. Death the Kid had never had any interests for the other sex; it was a waste of time. Love wasn't something that lasted; close friendship was the closest one could get to what people call 'love'.

He ignored the several eyes on him and walked into the downtown area, looking for the right place where the fountain was located. Heading in the direction of the fountain, Death the Kid noticed that the people around him started to thin out more until he got to his destination. The area around the fountain was almost bare, only a couple people scattered away from it, most of them were either wandering slowly or running off to somewhere else. Only one was standing still close to the fountain, the body blurred from standing behind the running water.

Getting closer, Death the Kid's vision cleared of the person clothed in black, and recognized the Demon- Crona. His grip tightened on his pistol as he stared at the thin anatomy of the 'thing' he had to work with. He noticed that Crona, he still had to force the word to work in his thoughts, was in a different apparel than its usual black dress. He hadn't noticed it earlier that day, well of course he didn't, Kid never dared to look at it, let alone pay attention to what it was wearing.

But now, instead of the worn thin to near shreds dress, it wore black jeans and a fit black T-shirt. Death the Kid wasn't aware that it had owned anything nice, then again, Maka had said during lunch to Tsubaki that she had taken Crona shopping…

Death the Kid walked grudgingly toward the sword wielder, who turned around at the noises of his footsteps. He saw that its ice blue eyes widened as they watched him approach it. Standing a good meter away from the Demon Sword, they both waited in silence for Maka and her weapon to show up.

…

Crona had left her room when she planned, leaving her in the meeting place early, the only one there. The fountain had been somewhat populated when she got there, well, until…

_The sword master waited patiently sitting on the stone edge of the fountain, nudging small pebbles on the ground with her foot. She felt an odd breeze of air and turned her head to the side only to see a random boy has slid next to her. _

"_Are you alone?" he asked with a strange gleam in his eyes._

"_U-um, why?" Crona had stuttered, she didn't like strangers when they popped out of nowhere like that._

_The boy grinned, "Then how about I keep you company and take you with me?"_

_Crona replied quickly, "I'm waiting for someone!"_

_He raised an eyebrow, "Who, may I ask?"_

_Crona struggled at thinking and blurted, "Death the Kid!"_

"_Damn it!" the boy shouted standing up, "Already taken!"_

_As the boy was about to leave he swiveled back to her, "But if you decide that you want to meet up with me sometim-"_

"_Get your ass out of here already!" Ragnarok had popped out, yelling at the teenager._

"_Holy shit!"_

_The many civilians that were in the circular area all seemed to disappear at once, and Crona was left to stand in a peaceful quiet. She thanked Ragnarok, throwing in a 'very much' on the first time, he laughed victoriously and disappeared._

Now Crona was holding her right arm, leaning her weight onto one leg, waiting for Maka and Soul's arrival. She heard the soft sound of footsteps from behind her and turned her head to the noise, the familiar figure of Death the Kid walked toward her. Her eyes widened, where were Liz and Patty? She spotted the guns in his hands, they didn't look like the sisters, and Crona couldn't feel souls radiating from them.

Who would be there, other than Ragnarok, to keep him from harming her in the time they would wait for the other two teenagers? Death the Kid stayed a distance away from her, one that if he were to hit her, she could see him coming. But what if he just shot her from that distance? Crona tried to push those things from her mind, watching as Kid kept still.

There was a deadly silence in between them, Crona could almost feel the murderous intent radiating from the boy beside her, the dark aura that was in his soul. There was several long minutes of silence, about half an hour passed before something happened.

Crona turned her head to Death the Kid when he moved, he had raised his arm and faced his palm up. Suddenly a deep purple static came from his ring and produced a cell phone, which was ringing with the song 'Why Won't You Die?' by Korn.

Death the Kid flipped it open, brought it to his ear, and asked with an emotionless voice, "Hello? … Wait, Soul? Hold on."

He pulled it away and pressed a button, keeping the phone held out, he asked, "What happened, Soul? You're on speaker."

Crona scooted the slightest bit closer so that she was at least two feet away from the shinigami, she saw him cringe, but she wanted to hear what Soul would say.

"Well," said Soul's voice from the phone, "Me and Maka can't make it."

Kid tensed, "What do you mean? Why?"

"See, Maka tripped and she sprained her ankle pretty bad, she can't walk. And since I'm a pretty much useless without a meister, I can't go."

Death the Kid sighed, Maka's voice spoke up from the background, "Here- Soul, give me the phone!"

The sound of the phone being passed over to the scythe technician was made, "Kid, is Crona there?"

"Yes," he grumbled.

"Is she beside you, can she hear?"

Death the Kid's eyes flashed briefly to Crona, "Yes."

"Okay, Crona, do you remember the directions to the basilica ruins?" Maka asked.

Crona remembered, "Yes."

"Good, then you'll be able to still do the mission. Both of you can still beat the mission easily, you two can handle it! Anyways, tell me how it goes. Bye!"

There was an audible click signaling that the call was over. Crona scooted away farther from Death the Kid, wanting to be careful of her actions. The shinigami sighed and the phone disappeared with a static spark into his ring, it fascinated Crona.

He turned to her and asked coldly, "Will you lead the way to the mission spot?"

She nodded, a fear building up in her chest, "It's in the desert area, around two hundred miles west."

Kid looked up at the laughing sun, "We should get there in an hour or so."

Crona cocked her head, "Wouldn't it be more around two and a half hours."

"That would be traveling by Soul's motorcycle." His hard yellow eyes met her wavering blue ones, "But you have wings and I have a rocket-powered skateboard. It should be faster."

A small o forming on her mouth Crona asked, "Should we fly from right here?"

"I suppose."

Ragnarok flipped her wings out from her back, Crona folded them so that they wouldn't hit Death the Kid in the face. Kid summoned his skateboard, how it just came from his hands still amazed the sword master, and stepped onto it.

They both rose from the ground and headed off in the direction of the desert, Crona in front to lead Kid where they were going. Crona was uneasy about flying in broad daylight like this, in eyesight, while Kid didn't give a thought to it.

For the next hour, the two long-living teenagers flew in silence, neither of them saying a word. Surprisingly, neither of them felt awkward, well, not to the awkward where Kid was thinking death threats and Crona was panicking internally.

While Crona was trying to find the mission spot, Kid was beginning to grow bored of only seeing endless sand. Then Crona brightened as she found the crumbled and abandoned basilica, swooping down towards it. She landed on the soft sand and saw Kid land a few feet away. The old basilica was very large, about half the size if Shibusen, and only a third of it was completely crumbled down.

Crona folded her wings away and hesitantly entered through a large hole in the wall, 'Ragnarok…'

Ragnarok materialized in her hand, the blade ready to strike at any enemy that appeared. Crona heard Death the Kid's dignified footsteps behind her, as well as the click of his guns. They cautiously walked around the cathedral, waiting for something to make its appearance.

Crona skimmed her eyes across the floor, making sure that she wouldn't trip on anything, and strained her ears. She gasped as she felt the feel of a soul wavering close by, she heard Kid behind her surprised at the sudden emergence too.

The swordsman tightened her grip around her sword and waited to slash at whatever the being was. She took a step forward and a breaking sound came from the ripping cement. A withered green hand shot out and grabbed Crona's ankle, gripping it tightly. Crona screamed and kicked the hand away, breaking free and pulling something she didn't know what from the ground. When it landed on the ground Crona quickly brought down Ragnarok into its stomach, killing off the monster immediately.

As she pulled her sword out from it, a slimy green ooze dripped down the blade slowly, somewhat like molasses, the substance dripping onto the ground with thick _plop_ping sounds. Crona looked to see what the thing she killed was. In examining it, Crona saw Kid approach slightly to get a good look at the thing too, kneeling down a foot or two away from her.

It was small, about the size of a child, and was a deep toad green, the skin was thin and wrinkled, and the soul that sickly pulled its way through all of the green slime now hung in the air, a gross vomit colored green. Crona rose her sword and poked at the soul with the blade tip.

"That looks gross." Ragnarok commented, the lips forming on the sword spoke.

Death the Kid's eyes narrowed, "It's a goblin."

Crona's navy eyes looked at him in confusion, "A goblin?"

He nodded, "They aren't found easily, for them to be in the desert isn't shocking though. Even though they don't consume human souls and can't become Kishins, they are evil, killing everything it can find that isn't their own speci- Agh!"

Kid shot at the arm that had grabbed him by his leg. It pounded its way out of the ground, snarling with its beady red eyes, medium sized fangs bared, with thick saliva showing. It ran at Kid, who kicked it down with his foot and shot at it twice. Another sick green soul tore itself out of the goblin's dead body.

"Why are their souls green like that?" Crona asked.

Death the Kid straightened as he turned to look at her, "Since they aren't pre-kishins, their souls aren't red, they aren't witches, so they aren't purple, and they definitely not human, so they aren't blue either."

Crona nodded, "There are more, a lot."

Death the Kid stood up, his yellow eyes set on the dead bodies, "I can sense them too. They apparently don't come out easy, only coming out if you come near."

Getting an idea, Crona kneeled down and picked up a well-sized stone and threw it, making it skid across the floor in one direction across the room. In its path, it had went over three hiding goblins, that now pushed themselves out of the ground, Death the Kid shot each of them since they were at a distance.

Crona gathered up several stones and did the same, sending each in a different direction, summoning several of the evil spawns. She swiped the closes ones out in a swing of her blade and Kid shooting those at a distance, the sickly souls staying hung in the air, as both of the meister s were afraid to consume them.

Suddenly, without Crona making them, it seemed that all the spawns in the basilica tore themselves from the ground, surrounding both of the meisters. There were about two hundred of them circling the technicians, their fangs gleaming in the light that streamed from the large holes in the hall.

The spawns closed in, making the two meister's backs touch unintentionally, they jumped apart. The sudden movement caused all the goblins to swarm and attack them at once.

Death the Kid shot at all of those he could, not succeeding with their arms grasping him. The sound of Crona's blade ripping through some flesh was audible and echoing, but she squeaked when more of the goblins took hold of her and began to pull her down with them.

Death the Kid tried to shoot behind him without hitting the Demon Sword itself, which he found a tempting thought, he might as well bring it back alive, Maka would be pissed if Crona got hurt. Then he began to kick and shoot at the imps surrounding him, thrashing his arms to punch off the things from his body, realizing with exasperation that when he flung them, they somehow managed to change their direction and land on the Demon Sword. Making the sword master yell, "I can't deal with this!"

Crona stabbed through the monsters several times at once, catching four in a row with one thrust of her sword. The goblins began to get irritated and began to sink their fangs into Crona's flesh, making her yelp with cries of pain. Ragnarok began to take action, letting the blood fall to the floor for a moment.

The black blood splattered onto the ground and Crona yelled. "Bloody Needle!"

Sharp spikes shot from the ground, killing of numerous of the imps surrounding both of the students. The blood dried around her wounds on Crona's bare arms, the imps had moved the fabric of her jeans away from her ankles and bite them, the area around her shoes was hardening with blood also. There were slight marks on her collarbone and neck where some of the goblins couldn't break the skin because of the hardened blood.

With the riddance of some of the spawns, Death the Kid could more easily kill the monsters, kicking some of in the air, allowing Crona to swipe through them.

Ragnarok spoke, "Oi, Crona!"

"Yes, I know."

She quickly slashed the closest imps from biting her and rose the sword to her face, "Scream Resonance!"

The vibrating shrieks emitting from Ragnarok made the goblins freeze for a moment before they screeched in pain. Crona began to scream to with her battle cry and brought down the sword to clash with the ground, sending a wave of purple energy in one direction, slicing through several of the goblins, their green slime spurting out into the air, clashing with the color of the violet attack.

Swinging her sword backwards, it front of Death the Kid, an purple electric spark flickered at the blade of her sword. Death the Kid moved away from her arm and began to shoot at the imps surrounding at their legs, thrusting down his pistol to strike them on the head.

To both of the meister's surprise, several more of the goblins sprouted from the ground, swarming around Death the Kid as he tried to kill them. Crona thrashed at tore at the monsters surrounding her until she finally had a mound of dead bodies piled around her, she heard Kid's grunts and was about to rush toward him. But something stopped her, as well it stopped the goblins.

…

While they were in the state of shock, Kid took his chance to kill off the remaining goblins at is legs. In succeeding to do so he was about to sigh in relevance, until he saw Crona's expression.

"Wha-" he began.

It swung its sword in his direction screaming, "Screech Alpha!"

His eyes widening he jumped away from the attack, that damn bitch! Was it trying to kill him? When he turned to look back at it, Crona was in a fighting stance, but wasn't looking at him. Death the Kid swiveled his head to the direction in which Crona was looking, only to suck in his breath when he realized that she had saved his life.

A large mutant sized goblin was standing not to far from him, Crona's attack had distracted it for a moment and now it was growling agitatedly as it was aiming to charge. Its head touched the crumbling ceiling of the cathedral, its fangs were sharp and gleaming as if they were dying to rip through the Demon Sword's body.

The massive monster charged at Crona, about to jump on it and tear the Demon Sword to shreds. Death the Kid shot at the monster, distracting it for a moment while it stared at him. This allowed Crona to throw another Screech Alpha at it, slicing through the monster's skin, only managing to rip a third of his left side off. The green slime spurt out of its body as it screeched deafeningly as goblins apparently had no blood.

Death the Kid shot at it again, continuously pulling the trigger until the monster began to charge at him. Crona ran on to the goblin and climbed up it large body, reaching its head, Crona stabbed its sword through the monster's head. It thrashed and shrieked at the pain, Crona retrieved its sword from the goblin's skull just as the monster bucked it off of him. Crona flew through the air and landed on the unexpecting shinigami, sending them both thudding on the ground. Death the Kid felt Crona's body lying on his, he could also feel the tenseness in its body as it worried about if he would punch it again. Kid didn't swing at it, but merely pushed Crona off from him, landing it on the floor.

The Demon Sword hit the ground on its side with a soft _thump_ and pushed itself from the ground with a grunt to watch the vast goblin sway and fall to the ground, making a thud so violent it was like an earthquake.

A small soul unstuck itself from its owner's body, the sickly orb hanging lazily in the air, the slime dripping from its sphere shape. Death the Kid neared the soul and narrowed his eyes, the soul was oddly small for such a large monster, but perhaps it was because the monster was weak.

Crona stood beside him, but at a distance, "What do we do with all of the souls?"

"I'm afraid what would happen if a weapon consumed them, so I'll store them and have Father look at them." Kid answered.

….. **A/N: Sorry, got cheesy on the last part.**

When they arrived at Shinigami's Death Room, Shinigami himself examined the souls that the two meisters brought. Turning the gross green soul in his hand, Shinigami stared at it.

Lifting his head up, he complimented the children, "I am pleased that you brought the souls here!"

Death the Kid raised and eyebrow, "Why is that, Father?"

"Goblin souls are poisonous~!" Shinigami answered cheerfully.

"W-what?"

Shinigami raised a finger to the air, "Goblin anatomies are different than ours. It's like asking why a brightly colored frog is poisonous."

"So it doesn't get eaten." Kid answered.

"Exactly, their souls can reproduce into new spawns. I can dispose of these easily, I'm glad that you didn't consume them, or leave them out in the desert!" Shinigami cheered.

Kid nodded, "So am I, Father."

Shinigami bounced, "Crona?"

"Huh?"

The sword meister was staring across the endless land of black crosses in Shinigami's room, oblivious to most of what the two shinigami's were talking about. Crona was startled by the sudden call of name by Shinigami, broken out of the inattentiveness, Crona's navy blue eyes looked up to the looming figure.

Shinigami tilted his head to the side, "You seem anxious. Is anything bothering you, dear Crona?"

Crona blushed, "Oh, um, it-it's just that Maka hurt herself before the mission and I wanted to go see if she was alright."

The shinigami chuckled, "If you want you may go, Crona. I wouldn't want you to be worrying for your friend."

The sword meister's sad dull eyes brightened, "Really? Thank you, Shinigami-sama!"

Shinigami and Death the Kid watched as Crona fled from the room at a speed they didn't know the depressed teenager could go at.

Death the Kid's father chuckled, "Ah, Crona is a sweet child."

The younger shinigami made no reply to the comment, but said something else, "Father, how are you going to dispose of the souls?"

"I have my ways, son." Was all that his father replied.

Kid sighed, "Okay, Father. I shall go now."

Death the Kid turned from his father and walked from the room, hearing Shinigami hum happily behind him. He should probably visit Maka too, to show that he did not, indeed, harm the Demon Sword, nor even make a rude remark.

He dearly hoped he wouldn't have the stress of having to be alone with the Demon Sword like that again…

…

**A/N: Yes, I know that I did get cheesy in the last "entry", but I was in a rush. I'm sorry that this chapter is absolutely shorter than most of my others, next chapter will be tiny too. But I promise that I'll attempt to make chapter ten nice and lengthy. Next chapter, I've kind of decided is pretty much going to be like a short, I just that since this chapter is on the day December 30****th**** (I did my math), that they would have a New Year's party, right? Anyways, please review, or Maka will rip your guts out (so I made this one violent).**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Okie dokies, the chapter is up! **

**Responses to Reviews:**

**Only one this time, sorry peoples who wanted to see their review responded (though I doubt many of you care).**

**Quiet Assumption: Thank you for your advice, I admit that I do make several mistakes (sometimes to the point I feel like kicking myself), I'm not to terribly good in English, the class, not the language. I usually don't re-read over my chapters because I'm too excited to post it, but I guess that I should review over them more thoroughly. So I'm going to review over from now on to catch mistakes.**

…

Chapter 9:

New Year's Eve into New Year's Day

Crona knocked hesitantly knocked on Maka's apartment door, how she had remembered the way, the swordsman herself didn't really know. Crona was nervous that she was alone standing at Maka's door; she'd only come to the place twice, and both times Maka with her.

In her worrying, Crona didn't notice that the door was opened until her name was called, "Crona?"

Shaking out of her thoughts, Crona saw the familiar white haired, crimson-eyed weapon at the doorway, "H-hello, Soul."

"You lookin' for Maka?" he asked.

The sword meister nodded sheepishly and Soul grinned, "Okay, come in. She's in the living room."

Crona lightly stepped through the door and walked into the living room, spotting the familiar form of Maka lying on the couch. Her leg was propped up onto the arm of the couch, a pillow elevating her ankle even more, the blonde noticed her thin friend and beamed.

"Crona-chan!"

"H-hello, Maka." Crona greeted back shyly.

Maka gestured for Crona to come near her, "What brings you here?"

The demon sword wielder smiled nervously, "W-well, since you were hurt, I-I wanted to visit you."

"Aw, thank you!" Maka said sweetly, then she threw a sharp look in the direction of Soul, who was nonchalantly leaning against the wall, "It's nice to know that _**some**_one shows concern for me."

The weapon looked away from his meister's harsh eyes, "Hey, it's not cool to show over concern."

"H-how did you s-sprain your ankle, M-Maka?" Crona asked curiously, directing her best friend's attention elsewhere from the anger at her scythe.

The scythe technician's turtle green eyes looked up innocently to Crona's navy ones, "My father was following me, so I began to run, and just as I sped through the door, my foot got caught on the threshold and I twisted my ankle. Luckily I used my other leg to slam the door shut before my father was able to come inside."

"O-oh,"

Crona looked back toward Soul when he coughed, then paid no mind to it when it seemed he was oblivious to his action. Turning around back to the blonde meister, Maka quickly composed her glare toward Soul into a look of blamelessness.

Maka beamed, "It's really sweet that you came to check if I was alright."

The sword master blushed lightly, "W-well you're my friend, Maka."

Soul snorted and pushed himself from his place on the wall, "Girls are so into mushy emotional conversations."

His partner stuck her pink tongue out at him, "Shut up, Soul. You have no right to judge us!"

He chuckled, "Girls are always dramatic when they talk, always crying at stupid movies too. Watching you guys is always just like in those chick-flicks."

Maka's green eyes shot to Soul and narrowed evilly, "Crona, could you hand me my hardcover book right there?"

Crona blinked and looked to the heavy novel on the coffee table in front of her, she picked it up one-handedly, and passed it to her friend. Though the book wasn't heavy, the novel was thick and hard covered, it could be a potential weapon if one were to chuck it at one's head.

The scythe technician held the book threateningly and hissed to Soul, "Eight hundred and three pages, Soul…"

The weapon's crimson eyes widened as he stared at the deadly book, he sped of toward his room, his sneakers skidding across the small kitchen in his hurry to reach his quarters. Soul slammed his door in time to narrowly miss the copy of Stephen King's _The Dark Tower seven_ being thrown at his head. (A/N: I have yet to read the series, but my dad has several Stephen King books, and that book was the _one_ of the largest)

A dignified knock was heard at the front door of Maka's apartment, catching the blonde's attention, "Crona-chan, could you get the door for me?"

Crona nodded and made her way to the door and opened it for the one standing outside, allowing them entry. The swordsman jumped back from the doorway when she saw that it was Death the Kid outside, keeping a distance from the small shinigami to guarantee her safety. Maka's eyes narrowed seeing Crona act so fearfully around the boy, but Death the kid seemed to be calmer with Crona around now instead of throwing a fit of murderous rage.

Death the Kid made his way closer to Maka, "You look angry to see me."

Maka gave an exasperated sigh, "Well I'm not content with you."

Kid raised an eyebrow, "Crona came back alive, true?"

Looking in the direction of said person, Crona blushed, Maka replied, "Yes, but did you harm her is my question."

The shinigami straightened with an air of dignity, "Neither physically, mentally, or emotionally."

Maka gazed toward her timid friend, "Crona?"

The sword master blushed, "I-it's true, Maka. S-shinigami-san didn't do anything to hurt me."

Feeling convinced, Maka brightened at Crona's assurance, "That's great! It means that I no longer have to threaten death against Kid any more!" Maka suddenly thought of something, "…This does mean that the mission went well, right?"

Death the Kid nodded, "Yes, the mission went successfully and Crona and I were able to complete it without too much of a hassle."

"So Crona got her first mission soul?" Maka probed cheerily.

The swordsman looked down to the floor, "Well… no."

"Huh?" Maka asked surprised, "Why not?"

Kid spoke, "It turns out we had to battle goblins, and their souls are poisonous."

"Odd." Maka replied, "Oh, hey, Kid. Are you still coming to tonight?"

Death the Kid cocked his head to the side for a moment in puzzlement, but regained his normal posture, "Ah, yes, I am. Whether Liz and Patty like it or not, it would be rude to not show up."

Crona stared in confusion, not knowing what the two were talking about. Seeing Crona's curious expression Maka explained, "It's New Year's Eve, every end of the year, Soul and I host a small party consisting of all our friends to come. I was just asking if Kid was going to be there or not."

The sword master blinked, "New Year's? Why do people celebrate it, isn't it just the beginning of a new year?"

"New Year's is a new beginning!" Maka exclaimed excitedly, "It's were you set new goals and when the clock turns from the old year to the new, you're supposed to make a wish and kiss someone! Though I usually skip out on the latter part of the tradition."

Crona blushed, "O-oh…"

"All of our friends are invited so you should come too, Crona!" Maka invited, getting a nod in reply from the swordsman.

"Is Taichi going to be there?" Kid asked.

The scythe technician looked up at the shinigami, "Yes."

He groaned. Crona raised an eyebrow and Maka rolled her eyes, "I know that you don't like him, but that's too bad."

"He's so…" Kid started, "Optimistic. Sickeningly so."

Maka saw Crona looking confused, "Kid isn't very fond of Taichi because he's always so happy. He says he reminds him of an even more annoying Black*Star."

Suddenly the sound of a door opening was heard and Soul came out from his bedroom, cautiously picking up the book that was lying at his doorway. He looked into the living room to see Maka relatively calm and that Death the Kid was there. Good, now if she got pissed, there would be someone else there to share the pain.

"Talking about the party tonight?" He asked.

There was a sigh from Maka, "We are."

Soul raised his hands in front of him, "Hey, there's no need for you to be all temperamental because you're hurt."

His partner 'hmph'ed and asked Soul, "You _will_ make sure that Black*Star doesn't drink too much this time, right?"

The scythe looked in her direction and grinned, "Sure, fine, but last time was so funny!"

"Soul!" Maka scolded, "He was trying to drown Ox Ford in the toilet!"

He snorted, "Your point."

Maka threw a pillow at his face and huffed, turning back to Death the Kid and Crona, "It starts at ten thirty, in case you forgot. I would like it you came too, Crona, I don't think that Tsubaki will be enough to keep me from trying to strangle Soul."

The demon sword wielder nodded sheepishly, "Okay, Maka. I'll come."

Death the Kid looked at the small hand clock on the coffee table in front of Maka, it was already seven forty-two. He decided he'd might as well go home to inform the sisters that they no longer needed to hate him, Crona came back unharmed by violence or hurtful words, words that Kid had to swallow from saying.

No, he had not gotten over all the hate he had about the Demon Sword, it was more like resent now, but he didn't fantasize about murdering the thing anymore. Crona was now sitting next to Maka in the couch, watching as the scythe technician was explaining previous disasters that had happened with a drunken (though usually sober) Black*Star.

"I'm going to head home," Kid said, "I'll see you later tonight."

The shinigami walked out of the door, sending a backwards wave toward the meister on the couch, ignoring the demon swordsman, predictably. Maka gave a small sigh as Soul came to squeeze in with Crona to sit next to his partner.

"Kid seems to be getting a bit better." Maka stated, "His phase of depression is gone, and even if it's still there, it's more managed. I hope that things will get better with this next year."

Crona already knew what she would wish for when the New Year arrived, minus the kiss. Ragnarok came out and complained that he wanted to go home and relax so he would have enough energy to piss off 'pig-tails' later that night.

The scythe technician said that she agreed with Ragnarok, partially, and told Crona that it was a good idea to go rest. The swordsman nodded and left her friend's apartment, making her way to Shibusen, holding her arm in comfortable habit.

"I realize that you're a bad actor." Soul stated.

Maka swung her head to him, "Shut up! She believed it just fine!"

The weapon chuckled, "Yeah, but it's Crona. She'll believe anything you say, but you have to admit that if it were anyone else, they'd catch you in a flash."

The technician pouted, "I know."

"Though I don't see why you'd fake getting hurt just so that Kid and Crona would fight alone." Soul shook his head.

Maka sighed, "Because, the more he and Crona are around each other, the faster things will settle down. I wasn't Kid to finally get over all of his internal drama and finally go back to normal."

Crona nudged at the small pebbles of the sidewalk, kicking them into the street. Her footsteps tapped as she walked, and she wondered how the party would be that night. Hopefully, people would let her stay in her own personal space.

Looking to the side, Crona saw Death the Kid walking with his hands in his pockets, bangs covering his yellow eyes as he stared at the ground.

He seemed unaware that the one he had great distaste for was near; Death the Kid wasn't one that paid mind to his soul perception when not in battle. Crona tried to make herself go unnoticed, and succeeded with her years of experience in doing so. Once Death the Kid turned a corner, away from the swordsman, Crona felt relieved and continued to walk normally.

Crona now sat in the corner of her room, rocking in her little ball, humming. She was softly humming to the quiet tone of Death the Kid's ring tone, the beginning of the song was quiet and Crona thought it was soothing in a way. Her hums morphed into voice when she began to lightly sing, if not whisper, the lyrics she had heard to the song that she remembered.

"_You fell away,_

_What more can I say?_

_The feelings evolved,_

_I won't let it out._

_I can't replace, _

_Your screaming face._

_The feelings, _

_The sickness inside._

_Why won't you die? _

_Your blood and mine…" _Crona trailed off.

It surprised her, that she had only heard the first two lines of the song, yet somehow she had known the other lyrics. Perhaps she had heard it somewhere else? Probably, there would be no other way she could have known the lyrics to a song she'd never listened to. Then again, whenever Eruka baby-sat Crona, she had music play on her computer (that she stole) and let Crona play around and find songs. Every once in a while, Eruka would have to save Crona's innocent ears from some of the things that weren't very inappropriate. It wasn't curse words that were a bother, Eruka could merely tell Crona to not repeat one of the words, it was "other" things that were the problem.

Even though it was from her younger years, Crona could still remember the lyrics to all of the songs she had loved, very clearly, with not a word out of place from the song. Crona knew that it would a couple of hours, and Maka had said to rest, so she snuggled into her corner and focused on her breathing.

…

Death the Kid arrived at his mansion, walking through the doorway, he saw that Liz and Patty were lying sloppily across the two large cushioned couches in the living room. Liz was flipping through a magazine that Kid wasn't interested in knowing the name of, and Patty had her arm hanging limply from the corner of the couch to doodle of a piece of notebook paper.

Seeing him enter, Liz glared and Patty waved toward the shinigami, the eldest apparent on keeping silent. Kid shook his head and went over to sit on the third piece of sitting furniture, a chair, and folded his hands on his lap.

"You two can drop the silent act now." He said.

Liz huffed, "Why?"

His gold eyes looked into her sharp sky blue, "There's no need to."

"Heh, and why is that?" she challenged.

"Because the mission I went on, without the assistance of you two," he grumbled, "went perfectly fine. Maka and Soul couldn't show up, so I had the punishment of going three hours with Crona alone, and not doing anything you would disapprove of."

The pistol narrowed her eyes, "Hmm, I suppose we could let you off."

Kid let out a breath of relief, "Thank you."

"Whatever," Liz replied, "Are you going to the party with us?"

"Yes." Kid answered.

"Yay!" Patty cheered, "Kid-kun isn't in trouble anymore!"

Liz looked toward her younger sister, "Let's hope it stays that way."

Death the Kid sent a sharp look in her direction, "You have that much doubt in me?"

The weapon glared at him, "Yes."

He sighed, "I suppose I have no control over that, now do I?"

"Nope~!" Patty giggled, "Liz is still pissed~ at you~!"

The young pistol, as she was giggling, rolled off the side of the couch and fell onto the floor with an audible _thump_. After Patty landed, she went back into a fit of giggles, making the two older roll their eyes at the blonde's air-headedness.

"Well, I'm going to go hang out in my room." Kid informed getting up from his sitting position.

"Ok," Liz replied uncaringly.

Death the Kid glanced at the two sisters before heading up the flight of stairs and walking down the narrow hall that lead to his room. He shut the door softly, emitting a small click, and sat on his bed, not knowing what he should do.

He got up and walked over to his bookcase and plucked a book from one of the higher shelves, and sat back onto his bed, settling himself in the middle, reclining his back against the comfortable pillows. He flipped open the cover and began to lazily read the first page, trying to quench his boredom.

Not able to get involved into the story of his novel, Death the Kid laid the book onto the floor next to his bed and merely stared at the ceiling above him, pondering. He thought about things, everything it seemed, nothing in particular he was concentrating on.

The Demon Sword, Crona, seems to have tried to prove itself a friend to the shinigami, keeping a distance and respecting his wishes. Death the Kid scoffed, it still had a long way to earn his trust, just because there was no more thrashes of fury, it didn't mean that he was on terms with the swordsman.

Letting his eyes close, Death the Kid decided he wanted to just rest. Maka had said to take a nap so that they wouldn't be tired, but Kid was a shinigami, he could tolerate many things. Especially something as trivial as tiredness, he just wanted time to relax, without the sisters making too much of a racket.

Reopening his eyes, Death the Kid felt he wanted to listen to some music to help him relax. He didn't really want to get up, but he did, even though he was a shinigami, it didn't mean he didn't wish he had telekinesis. He took his I-pod and went back onto his bed, putting in his earphones and turning the device on. He turned the small dial on the I-pod until he found a song he felt like listening to, _My Way by Limp Bizkit_.

The lyrics were quiet, the voice of the artist letting Kid cloud his mind from his emotions.

_You think you're special, you do._

_I can see it in your eyes…_

_I can see it when you laugh at me,_

_Look down on me,_

_You walk around on me._

_Just one…more fight,_

_About your leadership._

_And I, will straight up, leave your shit._

_Cause I've, had enough of this,_

_And now I'm pissed. _

_Yeah, this time I'm 'a let it all come out._

_This time I'm 'a stand up and shout,_

_I'm 'a do thing my way!_

_It's my way!_

_My way or the highway…_

As the songs rolled continuously on, Kid let himself drift off on his thoughts, giving up on staying conscious, he let himself sleep. Death the Kid had several memories play through his head, shinigami's usually don't dream about random things like regular humans, on rare occasions yes, but when they sleep it's either pitch black or memories.

He was remembering the time when he was walking those streets of Brooklyn out of boredom, his father had come here to visit with a previous Death Scythe, before they died, and he had been allowed to roam the city. He was disgusted by the lack of symmetry at the time and was struggling to keep himself together while he was walking, in his concentration to not go ballistic and fix everything; he was harshly pulled to the side and threatened.

Then his golden eyes looked up to the mischievous one's of, who he didn't know the name of at the time, Liz, she was pointing a pistol, Patty, to his face. Her grin was cocky and an old lollipop stick was hanging from her mouth.

"Gimme all ya got an' nothin' will happen." She had threatened.

Death the Kid had merely blinked and pushed away the silver gun from his face, walking calmly away from the crazed woman. He heard her chuckle and shoot at him, obviously he had dodged it, and he gave a grin in her direction, showing his victory.

"Heh," she cocked her hip, "Looks like you got some skill. I'll be off."

With that she had disappeared, Kid had thought that would be the last time he'd see her, but found her with a new girl, Patty, fighting a large crowd of men. Seeing the sisters struggle, knowing they were sisters due to their yelling, Death the Kid watched, amazed at their courage. But then, when he saw that they were both pistols, he immediately came into the fight, ridding of all the men that were there.

With his gold eyes happy, Kid had held a hand out and asked for them to be his weapons. At first they had looked at him with awe, then suddenly collapsing on the ground laughing. They were completely skeptical of what he was offering, and Patty had stuck her tongue out at him going 'nyaa'!

Finally, after several minutes of growling at them he wasn't kidding, they agreed to go with him. Explaining to his father that they were his new weapons was surprisingly easy. Kid had thought it'd take convincing to have his father approve, yet Shinigami accepted it as if he had known previously.

"Kid." A voice called, "Kid! KID!"

Said shinigami groaned and opened his eyes, Liz's voice shouted through his bedroom door, pounding on it, trying to wake him up. Death the Kid blinked and sat up, his I-pod slid off his chest and onto the soft covers of his bed; the music that was playing was _So Cold by Breaking Benjamin._

"Kid get up!" Liz shouted.

"Kiddo-kun~! Come on~!" Patty whined.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." He answered.

Heaving himself from the bed, he put the I-pod back onto his desk and opened the door to face the two sisters. Liz had fixed her hair, it was straightened until it reached her shoulders, where it curled gracefully. She was wearing a hot pink, silk tank top that had a loose hanging neckline (A/N: You've seen those kind of shirts before, right?), with a pair of black soft cotton slacks, and her regular deep brown boots. Patty was wearing a thin sky blue hoodie (A/N: Computer says that hoodie isn't a word either XP) that fit her without being baggy, and a plain faded pair of light-colored jeans, and white worn out sneakers.

Death the Kid ran his hand through his hair to fix some of its sloppiness, "Now, what is it?"

The eldest sister huffed, "It's ten o' clock and the party starts in thirty minutes. I just thought I'd tell you so you can straighten up a bit and come with us."

Kid blinked, "Ah, okay then. Thank you for telling me."

Liz shook her head and Patty piped, "You were sleepy, sleepy!"

"Wait- how'd you know I was asleep?" the boy asked.

"Because of your horribly loud snores." Liz dropped dully.

Kid's honey eyes widened, "What? I didn't' know I snored!"

Liz snorted and laughed, "Ah, don't worry, Kid, you don't. I could just tell that you were asleep, it's because that's how predictable you are."

The shinigami sighed, "Thanks for spiking up my energy, now I need to get ready."

"Okie dokie, Kiddo-kun." Patty saluted and pulled Liz with her, "Let's go get high on sharpies!"

"B-but we don't get high! T-That only happened in Brooklyn!" Liz stuttered.

Patty laughed evilly, "Shar~pies…"

Kid raised an eyebrow at Patty's hyperness, but went to the bathroom to comb out his hair. After straightening his coat and hair, he was ready for the public, and to leave for Maka's New Year's party. He saw his yellow eyes narrow as he began to think of ways to avoid Shingo Taichi, damn, did that happy idiot annoy him.

He shook his head and left the bathroom, flicking off the light and shutting the door behind him. Liz and Patty were waiting impatiently by the door of the mansion, Liz tapping her foot with her arms crossed, and Patty whistling while rocking on her heels.

Both of the girls spotting their meister, they shouted in unison, "Come on, let's go!"

Once Death the Kid reached the end of the stair, they both took him by each of his wrists and dragged him behind them hurriedly. In their, more the sister's, excitement, they reached Maka's apartment in no longer than ten minutes.

They could hear the TV through the door of the apartment, the New Year's program. Knowing that it was unlocked, Patty flung open the door and tossed Kid into the room, marching in after him. Liz rolled her eyes at her sister's actions, but stepped into the crowded room of the apartment.

Maka's apartment wasn't too big, with the only sociable areas available the living room and kitchen, but it was spacious enough to hold several people without it being terribly cluttered. Death the Kid sighed as he made his way to the other sofa that was pushed against the right wall of Maka's apartment, it wasn't there the last time he visited, or the chair several feet away, maybe it was pulled out only at gatherings.

Looking across to the couch Maka was sitting on, her foot propped up on a pillow on the coffee table, Crona was sitting nervously. It was squirming uncomfortably, obviously not familiar with large quantities of people coming to talk to her and physical contact especially. Death the Kid could see that it defiantly wasn't used to being touched, when Maka tapped its shoulder lightly, Crona jumped, startled. When Black*Star came on patted Crona on the back, it stiffened, when Taichi, urgh, came and flopped into he space next it, Crona blushed and scooted away slightly.

Kid took a big note on something else, Crona was still wary of him and still had a fear with him around. When Crona saw that Kid was looking in its direction, its eyes shot away and it mumbled something, standing up hesitantly and walking over to talk with Tsubaki in the kitchen.

Death the Kid smirked slightly, he was glad that it still acknowledged that he would act on his threats and that he wanted nothing to do with it.

…

Crona's heart stopped when she saw Death the Kid being tossed into the room, though he seemed to be on better terms with her, not wanting-to-murder-her wise, there was still that un-trust and suspicion. She had tried to ignore him, and seemed to succeed, Black*Star thumped her on the back and yelled that she should be happier since his existence was that of the sun. Taichi had come over too, he had sat close to her, which made her a bit uncomfortable.

Not knowing how to deal with Taichi being close to her, Crona whispered about going to go chat with Tsubaki in the kitchen. Ragnarok had made his appearances, and by the time it came to eleven thirteen, he had conversed with everyone in the apartment, other than Kid, and given everyone a label, much to their dislike.

Maka already had her nickname.

Soul was Scythe Idiot.

Black*Star was Star Kid.

Tsubaki was Cooking Chick.

Liz was CoverGirl, not meant in a good way.

Patty was Air Bubble, but she began to giggle and started blowing as if blowing a bubble.

Taichi was Happy Creep.

Ryzo was Dull Man.

Kim was Witch Goodie because, even though she was a witch, she was sided with Shibusen.

Jacqueline was Hot Head, what with being a demon lamp and all.

Ox was Geeky Dude.

Harvar was Ponytail, well, because of his short ponytail.

Kilik was… surprisingly, Ragnarok liked Kilik and didn't give him an insult.

Fire and Thunder were Bonfire and Tiny Boom (since Thunder is a boom, and she _**is**_ tiny).

All in all, it was a fun night for Ragnarok, not too much for his meister. Though, even with everyone, other than Death the Kid, having their nicknames, they all, the girls, fawned over the blob's adorableness. Crona kept herself in the background of everything, listening to the conversations of her new friends, trying to avoid three people in particular. Black*Star, Taichi, and Death the Kid. Death the Kid for obvious reasons, Black*Star and Taichi because of their uncomfortable closeness and optimism. Crona felt that Kid was right in a way, Taichi _was_ a more annoying Black*Star.

The time passed by quickly, surprisingly for Crona, the clock on the New Year's program was counting down from ten minutes until midnight. Crona walked over to the couch Maka was still at, the blonde meister was sighing that she wished could walk around the room, even though it was small, and talk to people rather than have them come to her.

When the clock was counting down from five minutes, Crona curled herself in a comfortable ball on the couch and watched as her friends got excited expressions on their faces. Two minutes left, Crona saw Soul come over to sit on the other side of Maka calmly and let his arm lay behind her on the couch's headrest. One-minute left, everyone seemed to be getting giddy, Ox Ford was trying to scoot unnoticeably closer to Kim, but she rolled her eyes and told him it wouldn't happen in his dreams.

Twenty seconds left, Black*Star, who was standing by the couch right by where Crona was sitting, grabbed Tsubaki by the shoulders and kissed her in front of everyone saying the he should be the first of everyone to kiss anyone because he was a god after all. Ten seconds left, Crona tightened herself as they all began to count down with the clock, excited with anticipation.

_Five._

_Four._

_Three._

_Two._

_One!_

Soul leaned closer to Maka and pecked her on the lips, making the scythe meister blush and stutter. Ox managed to swiftly brush his lips against Kim's cheek, which earned him a fist in the stomach, leaving him groaning on the floor. Harvar ruffled Jacqueline's hair in replace for a kiss, the demon lamp's chocolate brown eyes looked up at him seriously and smiled. Liz and Patty pecked Death the Kid on both of his cheeks, making him swat them away. Black*Star kissed Tsubaki again, laughing as she smiled and turned red, twiddling with her long black hair. Crona closed her eyes and made her small wish, unnoticeable by anyone, as she was usually went unnoticed.

'I wish that Death the Kid would be happier,' she thought through her head, 'If that means to get rid of me, so be it, at least then everyone else would be happy.'

Reopening her dark blue eyes she saw Taichi jump excitedly in front of her and squeaked, but before the blonde could make a move, Black*Star, who was still standing at the corner of the couch where Crona was sitting, swung an arm around her neck and smacked a kiss on her cheek. He let go of her and boomed out a laugh as Crona turned a dark shade of gray and sunk down into the cushions of the couch.

"Ha, ha, ha!" Black*Star grinned seeing the pout on Taichi's face, "Just wanted to save Crona from being devoured by you!"

Since Taichi had been aiming for Crona's lips and not something innocent like Black*Star had got her cheek. In the first five seconds of the New Year, Maka smiled at her friend's embarrassment, patting her lavender hair, and saying that it was okay. Crona pushed herself out from her tight ball, the gray blush still dominant on her pale skin, and composed herself knowing that the two boys were just playing.

All the people in Maka's apartment, other than Maka and Soul who lived there, said their farewells and left saying they had a good time. Death the Kid and his weapons were the second to the last to leave, other than Crona who stayed a second longer to say goodnight to Soul and Maka.

They both smiled and watched as she left out the door, Maka pushed herself up from the couch and walked over to Soul and hung onto his shoulders.

"Ugh, sitting there for so long is boring." She complained.

Soul ruffled her hair, "Maybe you shouldn't have faked to hurt yourself."

The scythe technician huffed, "Well if I did that then Crona and Kid would still be on enemy basis."

"Tomorrow can be the miracle day that you get better." Soul said.

"Yes, doing what I did all day is bound to work if I did have a sprained ankle."

Soul chuckled as he thought of something and Maka was curious, "What?"

He shook his head, "Nah, it's not cool."

The meister rolled her eyes and Soul explained, "Since you supposedly have a sprained ankle…"

The weapon suddenly scooped up the blonde in his arms and watched as she squeaked from the sudden movement, "Then you shouldn't be able to walk."

Maka giggled at Soul's obvious playfulness as he carried her bridal style into her room, plopping her haphazardly onto her bed.

"Hey!"

Soul chuckled, "Never said I'd be gentle."

"Jerk." Maka muttered lightheartedly.

"Yeah, I know." Soul looked back as he left her room, turning off the light and closing the door.

Maka stared at the plain door and whispered, "Soul's a nice guy."

Crona slept in her corner, her head leaning against the stone of the wall, she had a small smile at her lips. Things seemed to be getting better and Death the Kid was trying his best to stay away from her as she was to him. She shifted and her hands were pressed against her chest from her knees tucked under her chin, hopefully her wish would happen. Her happiness meant nothing, she's already spent fifteen years of her life in misery, but her friends deserved their lasting ecstasy.

Humming her mother's lullaby, Crona noticed that she had it a little off; no, it wasn't off, but lighter. The song was the same, but the deepness of the voice was softer, giving the sad song a more flowing sound. Why did this song remind her of Death the Kid with its depressing demeanor and origin? The softer sound of the song made his hard yellow eyes come to mind, but Crona seemed to imagine them at a melting honey and gold.

What was this feeling stirring inside of the swordsman? Crona was disturbed form her sleep for a moment of this question, she was going to ask Ragnarok, but he was snoring contently inside of her body. She went back into slumber and decided maybe it was because the madness she had suppressed so long was finally getting to her.

…

**A/N: Whee, Crona seems to be getting feelings for Kid! Let's see what happens~ I know some of you are just thinking 'Let the damn romance start already!'. Plz be patient, only… let me think… probably three more chapters left. Which I know you're groaning because I take forever to update.**


	10. I finally found out how to do this!

**A/N: Whoot, whoot! To be honest, I never thought I'd get past the first chapter of this fan fiction. I"VE GOTTEN SO FAR! I thank all of my reviewers, how I heart you all~ not to be meant in a creepy way. The beginning of this chapter was kind of rushed, since I wanted to get to the point, but I promise I'll try to make it long. BTW, I forgot to put the disclaimers in my other chapter so.**

**Disclaimer (For last chapter): I do not own Soul Eater, and the song Crona was singing that was Kid's ring tone was Why Won't You Die by Korn. **

**Disclaimer for this chapter: I don not own Soul Eater, but the OCs are mine!**

**There, that makes me feel better! TO THE STORY!**

…**..**

Chapter 10:

A Special Mission- Crona's Home

Crona groggily woke up to Ragnarok whining that he was hungry, she begged him to let her sleep longer because she had stayed up late the last night and wanted to rest, and there was still an hour before class started. Squeezing her eyes tighter, Crona tried to find sleep again, until her partner began to whack her on the head with his small fists.

"You've gone days straight without sleep, and you're softening up after a couple days!" Ragnarok scolded, "Get up, you big wussy!"

The swordsman groaned and got up, rubbing her eyes and giving a small yawn, to retrieve something for Ragnarok to eat. Maybe after he ate she would go back to sleep, no, that wasn't possible.

In a humorous joke, Soul and Black*Star had previously brought her a big bag of dog meat bones to satisfy Ragnarok's hunger. They expected the small blob to get angry, but they never thought that it would have worked, for the weapon had snatched one of them from the bag after tearing a slit, and began to nibble at it.

Now, while the demon weapon chewed happily on his dog treat, Crona thought that it was quite cute, but didn't dare to tell Ragnarok so, she got out her familiarly comfortable dress to wear. She slipped it on after undressing herself of Maka's bought clothes and fastened the buttons at her neck, careful to adjust it to where Lily's gift didn't peek out from the collar.

Relishing the feel of the memorable cotton that she had worn for most of her life, Crona got her things ready for class after not feeling tired anymore. One thing that the technician was glad about being with Medusa, is that she had no sleeping schedule, it was wake up when told and go to sleep when allowed. And since her mother woke her up to do quests at such odd times into the late night and early morning, Crona was adapted to the routine of being able to wake up without feeling tired and falling asleep by will.

Ragnarok had successfully managed to tear through half of his breakfast, it was a dog treat that was very hard, meant to keep the dog chewing for a long while. Whoever made it must be successful, because it was enough to keep Ragnarok from consuming it all in one go, which means something. Crona took the slobbery stick of food and stored it for later, which Ragnarok would demand as dinner. The technician decided that she didn't want a dog if they were anything like her weapon.

After wiping her saliva filled hands off on her already Ragnarok's spit immune dress, Crona took out her textbook and began to read again, going past the pages she had already learned. Maybe today she wouldn't struggle as much as last time. Crona bit her lip as she was trying to learn about shooting soul wavelengths into one's body to immobilize them in battle. She understood the pain fine, she did have a jolt of Stein's, one of the most powerful meisters out there, wavelength shot through her. It didn't feel good, the electricity that paralyzed her for a moment before she could attack with her black blood.

It's not like she would need to pulse her wavelength, Ragnarok shot her wavelength just fine through his sword form, and it's not like he would ever be separated from her. Even while in his weapon form, when he can un-attach from her, there's still a remaining part of him in her blood that can convert him back into her even if they're a vast distance apart. Medusa had tested it, their bond still was able to work when Crona and her mother were at the border of Death City's limits and Ragnarok was being held by an unwilling Eruka back at their home.

Looking at the small hand clock, Crona decided that she should make her way to the classroom. It didn't matter that she lived in Shibusen itself, she shouldn't linger just because it was easier for herself to get to class than anyone else.

Sliding the textbook back into the messenger bag and swinging it over her shoulder, Crona left her room. Her dress brushed against her calves as she walked, making her smile contently. How she loved this overly routine outfit. When she appeared at the door of the classroom, Crona expected the door to be locked, but when she pulled at the handle, the door opened easily.

Blinking, Crona cautiously stepped inside, the lights were already on, and looked around for any presence of someone. The room was silent and Crona breathed a silent sigh of relief that she was alone, she wouldn't have known how do deal with if someone one was there. Perhaps Stein had come and left, not bothering to relock the door or turn off the light since he'd be back. Keeping her gaze on the bleacher's stairs so that she knew if she were to fall or not, Crona made her way to the row she sat at.

When she reached the edge of the long bench, Crona began to walk down the aisle but stopped when she saw that someone was sitting only a few feet from where she sat before. Death the Kid was there, his yellow eyes were closed and his head was bent down over a thick and antique looking book, he seemed to be waiting patiently. Hesitantly, Crona sat in the area of where she sat before, trying to stay away form the shinigami. He didn't move when she sat down, the closest she had been allowed other than the times she had accidentally fallen on him, he merely slowly opened his yellow eyes to look at her.

Crona gasped and tried to inch away from the shinigami as his gaze locked onto her, his eyes were dull and emotionless. He silently closed his book, the pages ruffling quietly as the covers slowly connected, Death the Kid pushed it slightly to his left, folded his hands in front of him, and narrowed his stare.

Death's son remained quiet as the Demon Sword squirmed uncomfortably, and didn't show any reaction when Crona spoke.

"U-um…" the swordsman whispered, "W-why are you h-h-here so early?"

The shinigami answered with a low voice, apparent to keep himself composed with being alone with Crona, "My father asked me to arrive earlier than most would because he suspected that you would arrive before needed as well."

Crona was confused, "W-why?"

"Father said that he wanted to be sure that both of us were present."

The Demon Sword blinked, "I-Is t-there a reason?"

Death the Kid sighed, "I honestly don't know myself."

Silence remained between the two meisters; even Ragnarok didn't want to mess with the serious boy beside them, since they knew he would indeed act violently. The awkward air that was tense between the students remained until the next early arriver entered the class.

Maka raised an eyebrow in suspicion seeing Crona and Kid sit on the same row at such a big distance.

"Crona-chan?" Maka asked.

Said swordsman jumped, startled at the sudden noise in the continuous quiet, while Death the Kid turned his head to look at the blonde, as if aware of her presence before she entered. The scythe technician climbed up to where the other two were and sat next to Crona. The sword wielder was tense and was breathing quietly as if not wanting to make any sounds of movement in fear of Death the Kid being so close.

Maka shot her green eyes passed Crona onto Kid, "You didn't hurt her, right?"

The shinigami huffed, "So much untrust. No, I did not hurt Crona, we aren't even near each other."

"Just making sure, Crona isn't one to tell people if something bad happened to her." Maka said.

The swordsman blushed lightly and tried to become unnoticeable, leaving the two other technicians to argue. Crona didn't want to listen to them fight, so she blocked them out, getting a view a their moving mouths with no sound emitting. Maka's eyebrow would twitch occasionally and Kid would look like he was growling and Crona could vision him as a rabid dog.

More students began to trickle into the room and Maka and Kid's argument faded away in not wanting them their "discussion" to be heard. The rest of whom Crona knew came into the classroom and took their seats, Liz relieving Crona of anxiousness by sitting in between her and Death the Kid, so now she could scoot over where the other students would have more room to sit. Soul sat beside Maka and leaned back onto the wall behind him, earning a poke in the forehead from Black*Star above.

KILL KON KAN KON.

Stein made his usual entrance of tripping over the threshold in the doorway, sliding in to the middle of the tiled room. His green hazel eyes peeked up at his students as he set his eyes on two in particular, he grinned toward Shinigami's son and Medusa's daughter.

"Kid, Crona, you two are wanted by Shinigami-sama."

Crona's dark navy eyes widened in nervousness while Kid calmly got up and tucked his antique book under his arm. Crona hesitantly got up and sent a worried glance toward Maka, the blonde mouthed 'it's okay', and Crona followed behind Death the Kid distantly, trying to calm down.

They were both silent as they walked down the corridors that led to Shinigami's Death Room, the swordsman was only trailing behind the shinigami at his pace because she didn't want to go ahead of him, he was walking calmly, where she was panicking and wanting to get it over with.

Reaching the large door that entered into Shinigami's quarters, Death the Kid knocked on the wood and brass surface. The two meisters heard the cheery voice of Shinigami allow them entrance, and they stepped inside, Crona more scooting in through the door.

The black figure in the room bounced happily as the two teenagers neared him, "Hello, hello~! Good to see you, Kid-kun, and Crona."

Death the Kid huffed bluntly and looked up to his father with his yellow eyes, "What is it that made you call us, Father?"

The elder shinigami tilted a hand in the air, "Well, there is a mission that I want both of you to go on."

"What is it?"

Shinigami raised a finger, "I would like you two to search Crona's old home she lived in with Medusa."

The swordsman looked up at Shinigami with her navy blue eyes, "W-what?"

"Why with me though, Father?" Death the Kid intruded.

The man with the mask gave a pitiful look to his son, "Maka-chan can't go with her because of her bad ankle."

"Black*Star?" Kid suggested, seeing his father's expression made him sigh, "Right."

"Sid? He's capable." Kid tried his last option. Crona's eyes widened.

Shinigami apologized, "I'm sorry, son, but there's none other than you who can go."

Kid sighed, "When is it?"

"I'd like it to be right now, but…" Shinigami thought, "Go an hour after classes end. You two meet outside of the school."

The smaller shinigami nodded and Crona bobbed her head as well. Shinigami added, "And you don't need to bring your weapons, the trip won't be dangerous, so you won't need anything. Though, I suppose for Crona-chan there is no choice."

Crona blushed and Ragnarok himself popped out, "Damn right! This little bitch ain't going anywhere without me!"

The Reaper swung his hand down to whack the blob on the head, earning a pained a grunt and another curse, which made Shinigami hit him again.

"No profanity." He said.

After Ragnarok grumbled with taking his leave, Shinigami waved them off to go back to class, so the two meisters left. Crona drifted behind the Death the Kid again, hoping that this mission that was intended for them to be alone would go good. As the swordsman stared at the back of the small shinigami's head, she wondered when he would gain his full potential as a shinigami.

'And even more able to kick your ass?' Ragnarok commented through her thoughts.

His meister sighed quietly, 'Be quiet, Ragnarok. Do you always have to be so mean?'

She could feel Ragnarok pause for a moment, 'Yes.'

The two meisters made their way into the classroom, most of the other student's eyes on them as they walked in. Death the Kid paid no mind to it, what with Shinigami's son, he got a lot of stares, and was used to it; Crona on the other hand, was always soused to being locked up by Medusa and ordered to hide her prescience, that put together with her not liking attention made stares very uncomfortable.

Crona kept her eyes down as she shuffled to her spot, her cheeks gray, and sat down next to Maka again. The blonde held out a sheet of notebook paper for Crona to copy off notes for. Scribbling down what Maka handed her and listening to Stein at the same time, but not wanting to listen to him since he was instructing the proper way to slit a heart, Crona bit her lip.

The rest of class went by in a blur for Crona, she was panicking inside her mind, a small bead of sweat was trickling down the back of her neck. She and Death the Kid were going to go to her old home, the home that was surrounded by other homes. That were occupied with several witches. With that fact, Crona was near hyperventilation; those witches didn't deserve to die by the hand of Shinigami's son. They weren't bad, unlike the ones that Shibusen had killed, these were innocent witches in hiding.

When the bell finally rang, signaling that the students could all go home, Crona packed everything into her bag quickly to get out of there. The meister walked in a haze down the crowded hallways, avoiding touching anybody; suddenly Maka caught the thin girl by the shoulder.

"Crona-chan?" Maka asked, "Is anything wrong? You were quieter than normal at lunch and you weren't looking anywhere but the front in class."

The depressed teenager stumbled, "Ah, um, I-it's nothing. Shinigami told me that Death the Kid-san and I h-have to go on a mission, and I-I'm a little nervous."

Maka blinked, "Oh, well I'm sure it'll go fine!"

The swordsman gave a wavering smile, "A-alright, Maka. I'm going to my room, okay?"

The other meister beamed, "Okay, good luck on your mission!"

Crona nodded and turned away, heading toward her cell room at a fast pace. She swung the door open and kicked it shut, letting her bag drop to the floor as she paced in circles around her small room. Crona's hand was gripping her right arm in panic, she bit her lip as she thought of something to do. Then she got an idea, the snakes that were inside her and Eruka had allowed Medusa to converse with them through their thoughts, perhaps it went the same for the victims.

'Eruka, Eruka!' Crona thought frantically, trying to contact to the frog witch through ESP, 'I need you, I need you to come!'

The meister was chewing on her lip when the familiar frog poofed into her room, "Well, now I know that the snakes work. What is it, Crona? You seem out of it."

The teenager spoke hurriedly, "Shinigami-sama said for me and Death the Kid to go on a mission where my old home is, which makes me really worried because what if something goes wrong. And I don't know what to do because a bunch of witches live there and I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! (A/N: the last sentence was suppose to all be one word, but website wouldn't let me *pouts*)

Despite the fact that the girl spoke to where no one could manage the words that flew out, Eruka could understand the message Crona was trying to give.

"What do you mean?" the frog questioned.

Navy eyes wavered, "A bunch of witches live there, including you, Eruka, and if Death the Kid notices that, he'll mention it to his father, which mean they'll all come after you!"

Eruka's coal eyes widened, then she gave a small laugh, "That's kind of a problem, huh? Well you don't have to worry to much, Crona. The houses were cleared out once Asura arrived with all the witches being afraid, the only people who live there now are Free and I, and we can leave for a couple hours."

Crona nearly fainted with relief, "T-that's so… good…"

The frog witch was wary that the child would collapse, as she was getting dizzy, "Crona, maybe you should sit down."

Said person lowered herself onto the bed that Eruka was on, "I… Thank you for telling me that."

"No problem," the frog answered, "I'll go tell Free right away, we can go roam around somewhere."

Getting a nod in reply, Eruka disappeared, leaving Crona alone in her silent room. The teenager moved from the bed into the corner to go slump in, with forty minutes before she needed to meet Death the Kid outside of the school, Crona used that time to remember the way to her home and relieve in Eruka's information.

(A/N: Skipping forty minutes into the future, sorry) The small hand clock on Crona's dresser showed that she needed to leave her room and wait at the spot for Kid. Pushing herself from the ground, Crona felt Ragnarok come out.

"Do we have to go on a mission with that wimpy little shinigami?" he complained.

Ragnarok's technician sighed, "Yes, Shinigami said we had to."

Grumbling, Ragnarok rested on Crona's lavender hair, his meister walking outside the school, onto the campus. Though they were ten minutes early to arrive, the familiar figure of Death the Kid was waiting at the front of the school. He had his hands in his pockets as he looked up at the sky, the light wind rustling his black hair into his face, but he didn't seem to care.

Hearing the approach of the Demon Swordsman, Death the Kid turned towards Crona, "You're early."

"You got here earlier than us!" Ragnarok exclaimed.

The shinigami's eyes looked at the weapon tiredly in annoyance then moved his gaze to the meister, "Shall we leave for the mission now?"

The technician blinked and stumbled, not used to the boy addressing her, "U-um, y-yeah."

Death the Kid gave a nod and gestured a hand to the sky, "You lead, you are the one who knows the way to your home."

The swordsman flinched as the shinigami dragged out the word 'home', but pushed it away and summoned her wings. The black wings flipped out and Crona watched as Kid got out his skateboard, the two teenagers went off the ground and into the sky, the Demon Sword in front.

There was a predictable silence that went with their trip, so Crona thought of her old home. Shinigami wanted them to go since there was probably something useful there, with Medusa being the owner, but was there anything? Medusa had her own little lab, which was supposed to be the living room, so there was probably some interesting things there.

The ride to Crona's "neighborhood", if it were to be called that, was longer than when she and Death the Kid were searching for the basilica. The yellow and tan hue of the sand was stretching out through the desert, not making it easier to tell whether Crona was going the right way or not. The monotonous color of sand was finally broken by the stream of brown, cottage-like homes. The Demon Swordsman bit her lip, had Eruka and Free left already?

Using her rarely used Soul Perception, Crona tried to sense anyone in the row of houses, feeling that no one or anything living was there. Swooping down, with Death the Kid following behind her, the swordsman landed in the dirt path that was supposedly the "street" cutting through the space of the houses.

…

Death the Kid put away his skateboard as the Demon Sword put away its wings. The shinigami looked around the area, skimming over everything with his observing yellow eyes, kneeling down, he touched the brown dirt that was spread out in the one particular stream. It was soft, unlike the rest of the rough sand in the desert, obviously lain out for a purpose, probably a path for walking.

Kid pushed himself back up and brushed off his coat, "Which one is it?"

The swordsman blinked and stuttered, "Over there."

Crona was pointing in the direction to his right, at a house that had its wood door slightly ajar. They both walked over to it, with the Demon Swordsman being quiet while leading the small shinigami. Death the Kid allowed Crona to enter through the door first, since it was the swordsman's first home after all.

Entering the cottage-like home, Death the Kid took in its scenery, of what type of confinement his enemy had lived in, both Medusa and Crona. It was dim inside, despite the fact that the sun was blazing from outside, the shadow made it seem as if it was night. Inside there were several glass bookcases filled with jars of strange artifacts such as eyes and even some intestines and other internal organs.

Death the Kid's eyes widened slightly at the monstrosity of what the past nurse had kept in this house, it was revolting and he wanted to leave. He looked toward his temporary partner and saw that Crona was walking past the vulgar items calmly, as if it were normal, which it was probably a normal sight if one were to walk past it nearly every day. Swallowing hard, Death the Kid walked further into the home, looking at all the glass tubes that held certain chemicals, certain ones that were poisonous and smelled horribly strong of acid.

There were certain ones that held sweet fragrances, but when Kid leaned in to one to get a better scent from it, but Crona quickly raised a hand and exclaimed for him to not near it. Obviously, Medusa used seductive ways to lure in some of her prey, which seemed as if a proven correct hypothesis to Death the Kid.

On the large desk pressed against the north side of the room, there were more tubes lined on it, which Kid took the precaution from Crona to not get near them, and several papers were scattered on it. Kid decided to look through them later, he could just take them with him if he needed to.

Looking up, Death the Kid saw the large circle painted in a deep red-brown color, surrounding it and the inside were lines and triangles, mixed in with what had to be witch writing. Death the Kid turned to Crona, who was startled when he looked in its direction, the wide navy eyes avoiding his hard yellow ones. Surely, living with a witch for a mother, Crona had to know their writing.

The shinigami let to get Crona's attention, "Can you translate the witch writing on this wall?"

The Demon Swordsman blinked, then looked down as it shuffled its feet, "I-I'm sorry, I-I don't know how."

Kid's eyebrow twitched, "What do you mean?"

Crona squeaked at the boy's harshness, "I-I don't know how to r-read w-witch writing. M-Medusa-sama never taught me how."

Kid sighed, "Well if you can't read it then I suppose we won't be able to figure it out."

Crona blushed then stuttered, "W-well, Ragnarok knows how to."

Death the kid's eyes shot up to Crona's navy ones, "Ask him to translate it."

"I-if he agrees."

Ragnarok spouted from the swordsman's back, glaring intently at the shinigami before him, "What?"

The shinigami gestured toward the wall, "I'm asking if you would translate the writing on the wall."

Ragnarok snorted, "Yeah, right. I'm not doing nothing."

Death's son growled low under his breath as the stubborn weapon stuck his tongue out and disappeared into his meister's spine.

"I-I'm sorry," Crona apologized, "that he didn't cooperate."

Death the Kid looked in the technician's direction and choked the words out through his teeth with effort, "It's okay… it wasn't your fault."

The Demon Sword blushed at seeing Death the Kid's attempt to be kind with his words and actions, "O-okay."

They roamed in the living room, or Medusa's lab, area more, even though the swordsman said that other than what they saw of Medusa's there was nothing else interesting. Death the Kid ran a hand across a dusty table that had a spider web woven in between the space of the table and the wall. The creator of the web itself was resting in the middle, the black spider not aware of the humans' presence, Death the Kid paid no mind to it, until Crona did. It took an intake of breath and lowered a hand down cautiously toward the creature, swiftly scooping it into its hand and crunched its hand closed. The shinigami blinked at the swordsman's choice of killing the spider and watched as Crona reopened its hand to reveal the crushed spider, the internal liquid of the large bug running across the meister's palm. Crona let it fall from its hand to the tabletop wiping off its hand with the dusty cloth that was lying on the tabletop as well.

Why the swordsman killed the spider, and why in and odd way made the shinigami curious, but he didn't pay any mind to it. Death the Kid made his way to Medusa's desk again, he wanted to read the papers scattered around it, maybe they contained something important that Shibusen would need to know about.

In walking to the desk, Kid saw Crona walk past him down a short hall. There were three doors that were in the hall, one was on the left side, a little ways from it on the opposite was another door, then at the very end in the center was the last one. The swordsman's soft footsteps sounded hollow, as if echoing grief when walking through the horribly familiar home. Gripping its arm tightly, and moving now almost soundlessly, Crona looked toward the door at the left wall, gnawing on its lip.

Crona slowly reached up a hand and touched something large and metal on the frame of the door. A small clicking sound was made, and the technician opened the door, leaving it open, and stepped inside, its body being engulfed by the shadowy darkness of the room. Death the Kid narrowed his golden eyes in curiosity and lightly followed the swordsman, stopping at the edge of the doorway, looking at the lone meister.

It was standing in the middle of the dark room, its head tilted slightly to the side, clutching at its right arm. A small sound was emitting from the Demon Sword, somewhat like a hum, and the little noise had a soft wavering echo in the empty cement room. Death the Kid realized that the swordsman was lightly singing a melody, he couldn't hear it, but Kid knew that was what Crona was doing.

Death the Kid leaned onto the metal frame of the door, looking at the large thing attached to its edge. Running his hand over it, the shinigami recognized that it was a bolt lock. Beside it was a large brass key, obviously to unlock the door. Realization came to Kid's mind.

'So this was the room Medusa had locked Crona in.' he thought, recalling what Maka had told him, 'This place must bring bad memories to her.'

The shinigami froze cold, 'Wait, "her"? Please tell me I did not just-"

…

Crona heard her mission partner cough and wheeze in a breath of air, looking around, Death the Kid was leaning against the doorframe of her old room with his yellow eyes wide. The swordsman almost took a step towards him, but didn't when he cleared his throat and told her with a faint voice that he was going to look at Medusa's papers.

The demon sword wielder blinked, it seemed as if Shinigami's son was in a state of shock, but what would he be shocked about? Turning back to the wall of her old room, Crona stared at the small symbol she had carved into the wall when she was younger, when Medusa had ordered her to scratch in the character 'death' onto the wall with a meat knife.

Softly humming her old lullaby, Crona was slightly over taken by a small bit of insanity being in such an agonizing place, filled with her mother's belongings, reminding, and the presence of remaining wavelength. Sighing, Crona walked to the corner of her empty room and was compelled to sit in the corner, the corner that had the gray paint worn from it because the child had sat there so many times in her lifetime. But instead of doing so, the meister scooped up the large pile of black cloth lying close to the corner, the week's worth of dresses that Crona had owned.

Tucking the folded garments under her arm, Crona left the room to go wander around somewhere else in the house. She looked down the rest of the hallway to the last door and bit her lip; Crona hesitantly inched closer to it, then finally walked over and opened the door. It was the first time she had ever entered Medusa's room, and even though her mother was dead, Crona felt the part of her that made it seem like she was doing something she wasn't supposed to.

The inside was mostly plain, it was dim, and the small window in the south direction of the room blocked out the sun with dark earth brown curtains. The teenager felt an odd sickening feeling while near the snake witch's room, it wasn't the feeling she got while close to Death the Kid, but more of a painful sensation. Entering the dark room, Crona left the door open to be able to see, she felt like it would be wrong to open the window, the swordsman looked around. A twin-sized bed was a meter away from the left right wall, with thin dark blue blankets and a pillow. A small nightstand was beside the bed, it held an oil lamp, a quill, a bottle of black ink, and a notebook.

Nearing the nightstand, Crona saw that the notebook was a journal; it was made of leather and indigo colored with a black arrow running across the cover, it also had a lock on the side. Medusa's daughter ran her hand along her mother's journal, shivering at its touch, and the churning in her stomach grew stronger. Perhaps it was the snakes crawling through Crona's body, being so close to their creator, the snakes were squirming.

The meister heard some footsteps lightly approach threw the hall, knowing it was Death the Kid, Crona quickly and silently slipped the small diary into the pocket of her black dress. The shinigami appeared at the doorway, his yellow eyes searching through the room, several sheets of limp paper in his hand.

Death the Kid lifted the papers slightly, "A lot of them cut off when they're finally getting to the point of Medusa's experiments. I was hoping that maybe, since you are the subject of them, you could tell me what they mean."

Crona walked over to him, careful about the journal in her pocket, and looked at the papers, skimming them over. The information was written in Medusa's small and precise writing, making it easier to read with the witch's neatness.

_June 18- Subjects of the black blood are able to separate at far distances, such as two or three miles apart, and are able to continue to re-connect. Crona is able to still wield Ragnarok if-_ The message cut off at the end of the paper, the top of the page had a small diagram of numbers and circles, with the small sentence and a half written underneath, and the back was blank.

The "subject of the black blood" blinked, "Oh, that's one of the experiments Medusa-sama had test out to see if Ragnarok and I would still be able to re-connect if we were separated at long distances. It proved successful, so no matter how far apart we are when he's in weapon form, we'd still be able to come together again."

The shinigami nodded, he had the papers stretched out so that he was a distance away from the swordsman, "Ah, well, these other papers aren't too important, they don't hold very much information, but I suppose I should still bring them back to Father."

"They're all important." Crona said.

Death the Kid looked at her oddly, "What?"

She reached over to Death the Kid's other hand, causing him to flinch, and took one of the paper from his grasp. Crona skimmed over the page: _Black blood is prone to poison, able to resist types of chemicals, tube FN was not able to harm Crona or Ragnarok, while tube DP caused them to hyperventilate. May also be the cause of young age, test subjects are still toddlers and unable to take loads of damage. Injection of bleach through syringes seems to strengthen the blood's power and unstable the insanity rate. _

Crona pointed to the paragraph, "Medusa-sama wrote it down for a reason, she would take syringes and inject bleach into my stream, so she would do that every month. And she still was until she died, and even gave me two doses before the fight. While "making" the black blood for the kishin, Medusa put large amounts of bleach into the mix for more strength. Everything she's written usually has a reason to it, most of it does, some are just scribbles of random information that may or may not of been any use to her though."

The other technician looked down at the other pages curiously, "It seems that your mother has thought of her plan for a long time if she was noting down information for that long."

The swordsman nodded, "It was her plan before I was born, she just never had study subjects to test what she needed. That may be why I'm alive today, is because of her own needs."

Crona saw that Death the Kid was avoiding her gaze, "Did you find anything interesting in your mothers room?"

"Ah, no. T-The only thing here to look at would be the nightstand, which doesn't have any drawers or under the bed, t-there's nothing else here."

Death the Kid sighed and looked under the bed, only to report there was only some clothes. The nightstand that Crona had ridded of Medusa's journal had nothing else interesting on it, so Death the Kid said he would go see which tubes "FN" and "DP" were, saying that he wouldn't sniff them, but merely study. Crona nodded and watched the shinigami go, she was going to follow, but her foot caught a small cord that was running across the room and fell.

She didn't really land hard, so there wasn't much of a noise, but the meister hit her head on the nightstand. Looking up, Crona was faced with the wooden leg of the small desk, but her eyes caught something. Taped to the side was a little silver key, spiking curiosity in the meister, also causing Crona to narrow her eyes.

Crona peeled the small key from the leg of the nightstand and stared at it, it probably was the one to Medusa's diary. The teenager stored that in her pocket as well, now at least Crona didn't have to break it open, and stood up from the ground. Crona left he room back to where Death the Kid was and saw him observing a sealed tube that held a black liquid.

There was a small label that read _Sample: Black Blood._ The shinigami looked toward Crona, "A note was stuck to it, as well."

He handed the small piece of paper over to the swordsman, careful to not have them come to close or touch. Once Medusa's daughter successfully had the paper, Crona read over the one sentence written on it. _50 milliliters of Crona's black blood, contains large amount of DNA without Ragnarok's fully mixed in. Age 4._

The meister blinked, "This is old. I haven't had my DNA individually without Ragnarok since… well four."

Death the Kid's yellow eyes slid over to her, "I suppose I should bring this as well, then."

"W-whatever you think you s-should do." Crona stuttered, not really wanting a sample of her blood in the clutches of, who it was obviously going to be given to, Stein.

Death the Kid tucked the vial inside his coat, where supposedly had a hidden pocket on the inside, "I presume we should make our way back to Shibusen."

With a small nod in reply, Death the Kid and Crona went outside to leave the area that was once the swordsman's home.

…..(A/N: skips to Shinigami's Death Room)

"AH!" Shinigami cheered seeing the two teenagers walk through his door, "You're back~!"

Crona and Death the Kid were entering his office with blank looks on their faces, but since neither of them looked injured, it seemed that the mission went well.

Death the Kid walked up to his father, "Yes, we found a few things that were of interest."

"Ooh, what are they?" Shinigami asked.

His son unfolded the papers he had in his pocket, "Experiment notes written by Medusa, some of them are interesting, they are mostly on the black blood and how it reacts to things."

His father took the papers from his son's grasp and skimmed them over, the clean handwriting of Crona's mother legible.

Shinigami bounced hiding the papers in the darkness of his cloak, "That's wonderful, did you find anything else of importance?"

Kid reached into his black jacket and handed his father the small vial of Crona's black blood., "There was this, I felt that it would be wise to bring it."

"Yes~" Shinigami looked interested, "Stein should be able to look over this."

'I was right.' Crona thought.

Shinigami looked over to Crona, who was silently watching him and his son converse, "Ah, Crona-san, you may leave if you want to."

The meister looked up at him with deep navy eyes, hollow and waiting, "O-oh, okay, Shinigami-sama."

Death blinked behind his mask as he watched the thin swordsman leave in such an emotionless action, like the child had an intense nightmare and hadn't gotten any sleep.

Crona turned around from him and made her way to the large door, slipping outside into the hall, the unenergetic demeanor slipping away as she felt more awake. Crona tried not to run once she was outside Shinigami's Death Room, it would most defiantly give her away, so Crona walked at a fast pace to return to her cell. Bound in the swordsman was… a sort of excitement, but not in a good way, a stirring in the stomach that was almost… an expectance of disaster.

The journal that was still in her dress pocket almost seemed to burn against her thigh, angered at the absence of its owner. Who knows what dark secrets were written on this paper by the witch Medusa Gorgon, the evil that swarmed the journal's presence.

Crona's stomach seemed to drop when she finally reached the inside of her room, she wished she had a lock on her door for privacy. Now it was time to read her mother's diary.

Death the Kid looked up at his father, "There was a witch circle on the wall of Medusa's "lab", but the writing was in their language."

Shinigami tilted his head, "Crona cannot read witch?"

Death's son sighed, "Sadly, no. But it said that Ragnarok can, when I asked him though, he said that he wouldn't translate it. I don't know what to do about that, we need that type of information."

"Do not worry about it," Shinigami told his son, "we shall deal with that later."

Crona slumped into her corner, a pillow in tight in her grip, and pulled the soft lump to her chest. Sucking in a breath, Crona slid out the journal from inside her dress, taking the small silver key out with it. The snakes in her stomach crawled in anger at the trespassing of their owner's privacy, seeming to hiss in disagreement, making Crona hesitate.

She slid the small key in the lock and turned it, a small click signaling the entrance of Medusa's words. Ragnarok awakened from inside of her and appeared on her head, the same anxiousness in his mind at the witch's journal. As the pages opened, the painful churning in Crona's stomach grew larger, the black ink was neatly printed onto the page.

The meister sighed in disappointment when seeing that the words were all written in the witch language, making it incapable for her to read. Medusa had taught Crona on a small amount of witch language, but gave up when deciding to make Crona a swordsman because of the incapability of her being a witch.

"I could still translate it." Ragnarok offered.

Crona looked up to her partner with hopeful eyes, "Really?"

He peered down at her, "Yeah, I just didn't want to for that asshole shinigami."

Looking down at the first page, Ragnarok read aloud, "_May twenty-fourth: The other journal is filled, the start of a new one, test subjects are now eight. Potential for being a Kishin is low, but I can see their progress in succeeding my wishes."_

Crona skimmed the dates, they were the only things she could read in witch, and flipped through the pages. December 24. Crona's eyes brightened as she asked Ragnarok to translate it, she added in a please so she wouldn't have an argument, this was vital.

"_Today is the Christmas Eve event, today is the day that I shall succeed in reviving the Kishin Asura. My façade as a nurse has not failed me, and today is the day that I am grateful for the one thing Shinigami had done… giving me the job. Maka and Soul are still infected with the black blood Ragnarok gave them, the revival should probably plunge them into madness if all goes to plan._

"_Since I know that my identity will most likely be revealed, I am going to have Crona join into my plans for fighting, it should be able to kill them, or at least hold them of. It will be a good experiment on how long the child will last against some of Shibusen's students or staff. _

"_Once the revival of the Kishin is complete, it would only be wise to dispose of my worthless child, it apparently didn't have the right skills to accomplish in turning into a demon god. Though, better yet, once Asura is in my circle of allies, he could have their souls, Ragnarok is powerful enough to give the Kishin a burst of energy. _

"_I hadn't thought of what to do with Crona, but I have a plan now. After Asura is officially accompanying me, I shall rid Ragnarok form its body and return Crona with regular red blood, Ragnarok's soul shall be given to Asura and Crona will, obviously, be abandoned."_

Ragnarok hesitated, the words weren't pretty, neither was his or Crona's fate, he could see his meister's face. It was full of sadness of her mother's words, but he continued onward when Crona politely asked him to.

"_It's a possibility that Crona will die without Ragnarok, no, that's a given fact. The child will be killed or mangled by a bear, something of that sort, but that is only more convenient for myself. End entry, I shall update after tonight on how the plan went."_

Crona gave an unemotional laugh, "And she ended up dead. I'm glad now that it failed now, both of our lives were going to be lost, so it's a relief that Medusa died. Right, Ragnarok?"

The weapon nodded, his meister was feeling a harsh knot in her chest, he could feel it too. Crona relocked the journal and stuffed it inside her dresser, going back to the corner. Slumping back into her comfort zone, Crona curled into a little ball and stared at the stone floor, thinking of her cruel mother.

An empty feeling was in her stomach, an emotionless void. Perhaps it was shock? Crona knew her mother was cold, but had always hoped to an extent that maybe, maybe, that her mother cared in the slightest. Love was something that Crona had always felt was something everyone had, no matter who you are, someone was there to love you.

Apparently not, nobody loved Crona, there were friends, yes, of course friends, but no love. Maka, Eruka, Lily, Ragnarok, Black*Star, Taichi, Liz, Patty, Soul, Free, Ishi, Venus… they were all close friends, but none of them loved her.

Sighing in her bound misery, Crona felt as if her eyes were begging to shed tears, but she didn't feel like crying today. No, no crying, she'd might as well accept the fact of part of her life, that nobody cared. If one avoided truth, they live a lie, and Crona hated lies, the truth is easier, even if it's more hurtful.

Her body was unmoving and cold, her eyes dry and sadness wallowing in the pit of her empty stomach. The emotionless void was now filled with pain, an agony of being alone had always been with Crona. Ragnarok had always attempted to comfort the meister even in younger years; he had been her brother after all. How else would their wavelengths synchronize together so well?

Closing her eyes, Crona let her mind focus on anything that she liked. Flowers were always something Crona was fond of, sweet smells and appearances, wilting away as their happiness of rain fades.

Ragnarok had fallen asleep inside of Crona, his light breathing heard through her mind. His meister got up from her spot and got the diary again and flipped to the last entry of December twenty-fourth, following the entry was an unfilled page.

Medusa's daughter searched for the pen that Sid had given her, that was the only pen she had, and she didn't want it to erase. Finally finding it rolled under her bed, how it had gotten there was a mystery, she wrote down one sentence onto the paper of Medusa's journal, the pen almost un-wanting to make contact with the diary.

_January 2__nd__- Crona Makenshi comprehends her mother's plans of disposing of her. I shall make entries when felt necessary. _

Holding the notebook to her chest, Crona decided to keep the small journal. Hating her mother or not, Crona couldn't think to dispose of it, and it was only three fourths filled, she might as well write in it.

Putting it back in the dresser, Crona sat in her corner and slept.

…

Shinigami saw the wavering line of the meter that was now on one of the numerous crosses of his Death Room. Before it was at the normal seventy range, but it spiked up to ninety for a second or two before it settled down to sixty-eight.

His eyes narrowed behind his mask, "Her insanity seems to be wavering out of pattern… did she read the magic bound journal she had hidden in her pocket?"

Leaning against his large mirror, Shinigami sighed, "When will my premonition take place? When will her happiness finally appear?"

…..

**A/N: Okay, so I know that this isn't a really lighthearted one compared to last chapter, but it was meant to be that way. I've already written (as in down on notebook paper) about half of the first CronaXKid moment, which is going to be in chapter thirteen. This is official, chappy thirteen, I'll update as fast as my hands will allow me I will try to keep this promise! **

**The last time I checked I had only three reviews to getting to one hundred (which made me all happy inside), so, since I want the big one-zero-zero… REVIEW, DAMMIT! If you don't I swear I will hack this story so I every single one of you that reads it, I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN! So that will not happen, be a good person and review!**


	11. The Real Chapter Not the Preview

**A/N: *Cries in total victory with tears running down face* 100+ reviews~! I want to give you all a hug, even the silent readers who don't review, just because you go out of your way to read my story! *sniff, sniff* Okay, compose myself, there, the next chapter. The title kind of gives it away though… but who really gives a crap? I don't know about you, but I don't.**

**Responses to reviews:**

**KlonoaDreams: I'd like to thank you for your continuous reviewing of every one of my chapters! I shall give you a virtual cookie *hands cookie * (you too primitiveradiogoddess * gives another cookie *)**

**X3sploosh: I will answer honestly, I do listen to 'Why Don't You Die' very much while writing, but last chapter I kind of set my music theme on Naruto's Sadness and Sorrow theme. (Writing serious chapter with depressing music in dark room plus non-stop raining equals good serious chapter!) I thought that 'Why won't you die' was a good theme for Kid so I used it as his ring tone, it just fits. And the, are you following the end of the anime or manga question, I guess it's kind of neither. It's in the middle of where Crona's still in Shibusen where Kid has yet to like her (obviously), I'm going to mix the anime/manga. I'm not going to spoil much but later on I say that it follows the rest of the manga, Medusa "dies", but they don't kill Asura. No more telling now. Thank you for reviewing, and sorry for my uber long response you probably won't read :) **

**FlightFire32: I'm not really sure what it's called, but when I downloaded it, it was called 'Why Won't You Die' so I'm not sure. But thanks for telling me!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, but the OCs are still mine~!**

…

Chapter 11:

Shinigami Study Tutor

Crona breathed in heavily as she rested in slumber. She was dreaming calmly and let the images flash before her. _The swords master was lying upon a grassy hill, with small flowers brushing against her. The sun was shining down, not laughing, on the hill lightly. The sunlight was soaking through the black fabric of Crona's black dress, warming her pale skin, her blue eyes closed._

_Crona rolled over onto her side and reached an arm out to pluck a flower from the earth below her, bringing it to her face; the fragrance was sweet and made the meister smile lightly. When Crona slowly opened her dark navy eyes, the bright sunlight dimmed and the sky turned gray, the warm breeze turned into cold air, and the grass danced in the air, almost flowing over her body since it was so long._

_Letting her grip on the beautiful flower lessen, Crona watched as it softly blew from her hand into the air, twirling as the petals separated and went in different directions. Crona viewed the calm show with half-lidded eyes, almost lazily, watching the beautiful act of nature._

_The deep green grass was soft and Crona tangled in it, enjoying the smell of the earth, smiling as a ladybug crawled onto her hand. Crona lifted her hand up above the swaying grass and saw the ladybug go off into the gray-clouded sky, the sun's light struggling to peer through the clouds._

_As her lavender hair swished softly around her face, Crona rolled over onto her back, spreading her arms out, and stared into the atmosphere. A pellet of rain dropped onto her cheek and rolled down her face as if a tear, Crona wondered if, maybe this dream represented her life. The shining summer that was when she was with Maka that faded into a calming light rain like when she was with Death the Kid. Death the Kid was this weather, a calming movement of darkness, beautiful scenery to some, depressing and joy killing for others; Crona had always enjoyed this weather, the cold wind that breezed against her and the deepness of the gray sky._

_It was beautiful, especially when the rain came, the wet grass touching against the swordsman's skin. Crona reopened her resting eyes and saw the scenery before her change, the grassy hill morphed into a forest, trees stretching far over the plains. _

_The meister lifted herself from the ground and looked into the thick mass of trees, the weather was still the same, the leaves of the branches ruffling against each other. Walking in, she saw that there was a dirt path; Crona followed the winding trail further into the deep woods._

_Brushing her hands along the trees, Crona saw that several had thorns on them, splitting her skin, causing black blood to trail down the trunks. Sighing, Crona closed her navy eyes and opened them again in slight annoyance at the cuts, not really caring for the injuries itself. But when the black blood that dribbled down her pale wrist and the tree trunks turned into a bright crimson, the meister blinked. _

_Red blood. It glowed against the monotone dull colors of the weather and nature. The scarlet fluid that was trickling from Crona's wrist that was no longer black dripped onto the dry ground. Lifting the skin to her lips, Crona tasted the blood; it was thin and had a rusted salt taste, unlike the black blood that was thick and tasted of nothing._

_Shivering that the now icy wind was touching the bleeding wrist, Crona held it to her chest with her other hand, getting her other palm filled with the red liquid. In this dream Crona could feel that Ragnarok wasn't there, almost gone, seeming to sleep inside of her in a coma. He was still there, but it would be useless to try and summon him, the blood would keep coming._

_Blood trailed behind Crona's footsteps, and the meister tried to ignore the small river that was traveling down her arm. The trees seemed to be getting closer, narrowing the path, closing in on the swordsman, who was beginning to feel claustrophobic. Her dress caught on one of the thorns of the trees, tearing through the black fabric at the calf, a thin slash in the garment._

_Crona walked farther into the forest and came up to a large, stone wall, it was gray, blending in with the color scheme of the dream, and blocked a path for any visitors. Leaning against the pale stones of the wall, Crona let her hand rest on it, leaving a delicate bloody print of her hand on the wall._

_Breathing in deeply, Crona looked up, the wall was as tall as the trees, maybe the slightest taller. Thinking, Crona thought that she could climb the tree and get on the other side, but it would be a problem with her gushing wrist. The blood was still coming out, but in larger amounts, splattering the dull ground with its bright color. Even the swordsman knew that it wasn't normal for a regular human to bleed this much from small cuts from a couple thorns._

_Red was leaking like thick water from the cuts that ran along her hand, plopping thick against the ground and dripping into the crimson pool that was at her feet. Why was she bleeding so much? Crona didn't feel as if she was getting weak from the loss, so it didn't harm her, but it was concerning. _

_Shaking her head, Crona put a hand on one of the trees and began to climb it, the thorns cutting more into her. Going from branch to branch, Crona's grip was loosening from the wet blood, making it slippery, and the thorns ripping more into the girl's skin._

_Groaning softly in pain, Crona wondered in her conscious mind why she didn't just let herself fall from the tall tree to end it. No, no, she had to get behind the wall, maybe something better was over there rather than the loneliness of where she was at the moment. _

_Finally reaching closer to the top, Crona clutched the edge of the wall and peered over, sitting herself on one of the braches, the blood pouring down the pale stones. Crona gasped at the sight behind the wall, nothing was very different, other than the fact she was the only one on her side, and over there were several hundreds of people._

_Hundreds of people that were lying on the ground bloodied and dead, with one lone person standing in the wind, sword in hand, hair whipping around their face. They looked up, and the person gave a crazed but sweet childish smile, the powder blue eyes looking up with an innocent expression through her lavender hair, as if she weren't surrounded by the murder that she had done._

_Crona stared at the replica of her behind the wall, it was her before Medusa had died and Shibusen had accepted the swordsman into their school. The replica of the past meister looked down to the drenched red sword and ran a finger along it, bringing it to her mouth and licking the blood as it dribbled down her lips, giggling softly._

'_Insanity,' Crona's voice ran through her own head, the past figure speaking through their minds, 'Medusa had always pushed you toward it. The spells she had used to make you more aggressive in battle… to kill.'_

_The present Crona shivered at the cold icy voice of her insanity driven self, it was scary almost to see what she was like with Medusa. Suddenly the replica was in front of her, on the other side of the wall, but sitting in a tree as well. The replica leaned against the barrier of the wall, her elbows on it and her face resting in her hands as she stared at the present Crona calmly. _

_The replica was wearing the same ankle length black dress that Crona wore, but with a thick wrap of leather and metal across the chest. The shoes were the same as they dangled from the branches, swinging lazily, and her lavender hair was ruffled and unkempt, the locks mixed with sand as if she had just come from living in the desert (*)._

_With her hair blowing calmly in the cold wind, the replica whispered, "This wall separates you from your past, if you cross it, you will go back to the life you lived before. Do you want that?"_

_Crona felt the snakes squirm within her body, urging her to obey Medusa, to agree with her past self, "B-but…"_

_The replica gave a soft laugh and placed a hand on her stomach, "They're getting excited aren't they? Lady Medusa would be happy if you came."_

_The replica gestured a hand behind her toward the deaths of everyone and she moved the hand in front of her, offering it to Crona, "You would be dearly praised."_

_Crona shook her head, rejecting, looking down to her replica's hand, "N-no, I couldn't do that… not any more." _

_The replica chuckled harshly as the present Demon Swordsman clutched the still bleeding wrist to her heart. The replica looked at Crona's hand with curious eyes and touched it. Crona sucked in a breath at the cold skin of herself that touched her, the light fingers brushing at the blood, wiping it off. The replica watched it trail her own hand, her powder blue eyes had darkened into the original navy blue as she watched._

_Her eyes slid to Crona's, "Do you know why you're bleeding so much? This red blood?"_

_Crona shook her head, "N-no…"_

"_It's a lot of blood that you've been bleeding," the replica replied dully, "and it won't be stopping very soon."_

"_Wha-? Why?" Crona asked._

_Closing her eyes, the replica moved the bloody hand to wipe it off on her armored torso. The navy eyes looked toward her present self with a deep sinister gaze, "You are shedding the blood of all the innocent people you've killed."_

_The evil grin of the past Demon Swordsman faded as dark red splotches blocked Crona's vision, blood pouring over her, as she lay pinned to the ground with someone standing above her._

_The hard yellow eyes of her mother looked down, the harsh glare, the yellow eyes tuned out to be Death the Kid. He leaned down slightly and stared at her, pointing toward the bleeding wrist, the blood that was not hers._

"_This is why I'll never accept you." he explained harshly, "You are a killing work of Satan."_

Gasping, Crona shot up from her dream, looking wildly at the room around her. The stones made tears well up in her eyes as it reminded her of the horrid wall in her dream, that dream… It didn't really come to being called a nightmare, Crona had nightmares that were far worse than the small dream she just had. Shivering, the sword master curled back into a tight ball, covering her head and shaking with cold sweat running down her neck and temple.

'Ragnarok…' she thought.

Being alone without him, that was always a bad thought, but in that dream where he couldn't help her against the past…she wanted his company. Trying to hold back her tears, when her weapon woke up to her crying because she wanted him, he would surely hit her, Crona looked at the clock. It was four fifty-six in the morning, that wasn't very wonderful, since Crona knew she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep.

Now she had two hours of nothing to do, other than read her textbook some more, but that wasn't really going to help her shake the feeling of her nightmare. Wiping away the sweat-damp hair away from her forehead, Crona lifted herself from the ground and wobbled to the sink on the other side of her room.

The blanket that still hung from the mirror was slipping off one of the corners, Crona ignored it and turned the rusty faucet to let the water trickle from it. Crona gathered as much water as she could and splashed it across her face in attempt to wake her up and wash off some of the sweat. Taking the blanket form the mirror, Crona patted it against her forehead like a towel, breathing in the scent of the thin material.

Looking into the mirror, Crona saw her weary face, the dark rings that were starting to appear under her eyes. Returning the blanket over the mirror, Crona went to get ready, she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, so she'd might as well.

Dressing in Maka's bought clothes, Crona had done the laundry about two days ago; Crona almost stumbled onto floor in her dizziness. Crona didn't have the best of equilibrium in the mornings, which was one thing Medusa always thought was pathetic.

Watching the dark sky outside, the red clouds had faded away due to the Kishin going into hiding somewhere in the world, letting the sky in Nevada return to normal, Crona looked at the remaining stars there were. Sitting on her bed, Crona rocked herself, her blue eyes staring across the room at the door. Not being able to stand the loneliness that she thought she had gotten used to, Crona swung her bag over her shoulders and left the room, closing her door behind her softly, not wanting to hear the hard echo.

Her black shoes made small taps throughout the empty halls, the lights in the school were always on, in case a student were to come, in need of the nurse or speaking to one of the teachers. Crona made her way to the classroom and knew for a fact that it was going to be locked this time, and even if it wasn't, Crona didn't feel like dealing with anything or anyone right now.

Pressing her back against the door of Class Crescent Moon, Crona slid down the wood onto the linoleum floor, her eyes closing even with the artificial lights above her. The swordsman let the black behind her eyelids remain, resting without sleeping, blocking out the images that immediately came to mind when her eyes closed.

It was about five ten by now, and no one had yet come down Crona's path, until twenty minutes later a set of footsteps were heard. The echoes were loud in the empty halls, whoever it was, wasn't trying to sneak about, coming in so noticeably.

Opening her eyes, Crona looked down the hall to where whoever was to see the familiar gray-haired professor was coming with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. Crona watched as her teacher came closer and stopped a few inches away, looking down at her. Stein noted his student sitting on the floor staring at him with her wide blue eyes, surprised to see him this early.

"P-professor?" Crona asked.

"Hello, Crona." He replied, tilting his glasses.

Crona blinked, "W-what are you doing here so early?"

"Well I would ask you the same thing," Crona blushed at Stein's comment, "but I couldn't get any sleep because it was racking through my brain that I had accidentally left my scalpel in the classroom. I couldn't just ignore it, so I came over to get it, it would also give me a chance to work more on today's lesson."

The swordsman asked warily, "What's today's lesson?"

Stein sighed unhappily, "Sadly, I don't think we will be able to do a dissection lab today."

"Oh no…" Crona lied dully, avoiding Stein's eyes.

The professor slumped slightly, "We will be learning about pulsating wavelengths."

Crona nodded, she had read about it, but didn't get it, "Oh."

Adjusting his glasses, Stein moved toward the door and looked down to his student, "If you could…"

"Ah!" Crona jumped up and moved away from the door, blushing.

The professor unlocked the door and flipped on the light, holding the door to allow the swordsman in. Once she was inside the classroom and muttered a small 'thank-you', Stein went and retrieved is scalpel, grinning sadistically.

Crona nearly ran to her seat so that her teacher wouldn't be able to ask her if he could, just a little, be allowed to dissect her. He had asked once before when she was taking the laundry to be done, saying that he was curious about how her black blood worked. Of course, the swordsman had denied Stein access for an experiment, which made the teacher disheartened, but he didn't give up.

"I'm going to go retrieve my chair, I left it at home in a hurry to get my scalpel." Stein explained, "Don't break anything, and if anyone comes, tell them that I'll be back if they do anything they aren't supposed to."

Seeing Crona's agreeing nod, Stein left the classroom and swished down the hall to go retrieve his chair. Crona watched her professor go and sighed. Boredom; it wasn't something that she was ever really faced with. Since Crona had either Ragnarok to keep her from wallowing in the pit of boredom or she was thinking of things that not many other people would understand.

Feeling the familiar stirring in her spine, Crona almost cried out with happiness as Ragnarok made his appearance. The blob grumbled at the brightness in the room instead of waking up in the dimness of their cell, taking hold of Crona's lavender hair, he snapped down and looked into her eyes with his x pupil ones.

"How the hell are we here this early?" he demanded.

His meister beamed at him, "Sorry, Ragnarok. But I just had a nightmare and couldn't back to sleep, and since you weren't awake, I just came here."

The weapon huffed, "What time is it?"

The meister looked toward the wall clock above the door, "Five thirty-seven."

"Damn, why didn't you just stay in the room! It's too friggin' early!" Ragnarok whined.

"I felt lonely…" Crona answered sadly.

"Pathetic." Ragnarok mumbled, resting tiredly on Crona's lavender hair.

The swordsman hesitated, "Ragnarok?"

He grunted, which in translation of Ragnarok's language meant, 'what do you want?'

"Um… If Medusa-sama were to come back, would you encourage me to go with her?" she asked.

Ragnarok would have raised an eyebrow if he had one, "What made this suddenly come up?"

His meister blushed, "N-no reason, just wondering."

Setting himself back down in the comfort of his meister's hair, Ragnarok yawned, revealing his mouth, "Well, Medusa's dead, so we don't have to worry about it."

"I suppose…"

Sitting in the silence, with Ragnarok sitting lazily on her head, Crona had nothing to do other than take out her textbook and reread what there was on pulsating wavelengths. Going over the words on the page, Crona blinked, Medusa hadn't given her daughter the most advanced of educations, so she was confused with a lot.

Eyeing a word she didn't know, Crona tried to see if she could figure it out by herself. The word was _vacillate_, and the swordsman felt that the word was important to the sentence. _A vacillate second can change everything in the way one pulses their wavelength, the difference between victory and death. _Yes, it was probably important.

While racking at her brain trying to figure out what the word meant, forty minutes had passed in Crona's intense determination, in time for Maka to walk in seeing the concentrating meister. The scythe technician made her way to her friend and looked at what it was Crona was reading.

"Crona-chan, what are you focusing so hard on?" Maka asked.

"Ah!" the swordsman jumped, startled at Maka suddenly standing beside her.

Ragnarok waved a fist at the scythe technician, "Don't do that!"

The blonde meister rolled her eyes and Crona caught her breath, "Oh, sorry, Maka. I didn't realize you came in."

Maka laughed, "It's okay!"

"No it is not okay!" Ragnarok objected, but Maka just stuck out her tongue at the blob like he always did to her.

The swordsman gave a weak smile toward the small quarrel, "What was it that you asked me?"

"Oh, what were you concentrating so hard on?" Maka questioned.

Looking down, Crona pointed to the word that was confusing her, "That word, I'm not sure what it means, but it seems like it's important to the sentence."

"Vacillate," Maka recited, "That means hesitate. So basically it's saying that if you falter before you make your move, it may not turn out as good as you want it to, or it gives your opponent time in that second or so to kill you."

"I get it now," Crona replied, "Thank you."

The scythe meister beamed, "You're welcome!"

Maka sat into the spot next to her friend and set her things out on the desk, "Why are you reading about pulsing wavelengths though? I mean, do you really need to?"

The Demons Swordsman answered her best friend, "Stein- sensei said that it's supposed to be the lesson today."

"Wow," Maka brightened, "No dissection lab today!"

"Well, he wasn't happy about it." Crona replied.

The scythe technician rolled her eyes, "He'll get over it, I don't see how he can cut up so many things! Couldn't you just read a book to figure out how things work?"

"Maybe he wants to see first hand to understand it more." Crona replied, defending her teacher, "I can understand why he does it, Medusa always said one learns through experience since she never really explained anything."

Turning around, Maka raised an eyebrow in Crona's direction. The swordsman blushed and began to read again, furrowing her eyebrows at the larger words, trying to avoid Maka's curios gaze. Maka took out a book and began to read it, flipping the pages softly, and looking up to the clock every couple minutes or so.

The two meisters obviously were bored, and they were to lazy to break the calm silence that was rarely in the large classroom with more than one person in it. Stein came rolling into the classroom with his wheeled-chair, walking it over the threshold to not trip over it that early in the morning, looking up to his two students, ignoring them after he saw that it was only Maka and Crona, both quiet and untroubling children.

Crona tried to have the words she was reading stick in her head, attempting to memorize the page. _Pulsating a wavelength is for those of higher experience and a strong soul, to master the technique, takes patience and a strong conviction…_

Ragnarok slipped back inside of Crona knowing that nothing else interesting was going to happen.

Maka wasn't able to sink into the book she was reading, she was used to reading in the classroom either alone in the silence, or with people and large amounts of noise. With others and silence was an alien experience that made the meister not able to concentrate.

Stein was looking at the two girls occasionally while smoking his cigarette, taking the stick from his mouth and puffed a gray cloud into the air. Breathing in the taste of his cigar, Stein blew a soft trail of gray through his lips and did it in a way that the smoke curled in the air in the shape of Shinigami's mask. Ah, how talented he was with doing that, he really had too much time alone.

Peaceful minutes of quiet and boredom, for all three of the people in the room, the rest of the students finally started to filter in, making Stein sigh in relief. He may not like it when the students got loud, but being alone with just the quiet ones made him uncomfortable, since he wasn't very good at handling kids. Unless he was threatening them of course.

Everyone was present and took their seats in the next half hour, Soul on one side of Maka, and Liz on one side of Crona, separating the poor girl from Death the Kid. While Liz twirled hair around her finger and chewed on a piece of gum, Patty bounced out of her seat and began to poke Crona, giggling happily.

"I wonder if Stein is going to make us dissect a bunny-rabbit one of these days, he hasn't yet!" Patty wondered.

As the blonde kept poking Crona on her bare arm, something she was still getting used to, she thought of what Patty said. Crona didn't want to gut out a small innocent rabbit, she had already killed to many in her childhood, it wouldn't feel right. Especially since they were here favorite animal, having them as pets then killing them gave her a fondness for the poor creatures.

Once the bell rang, Patty hopped back to her seat happily, causing her meister to stare at the blonde with an eyebrow raised uncaringly. Death the Kid looked back toward the front as Stein twirled in his seat, stopping by skidding his feet against the tiled floor, to look at his students. He rolled over to the large black board he had and scribbled onto it.

The professor pointed to what he wrote, "We will be learning on shooting wavelengths today since Shinigami-sama said that I should educate you on something in the book every once in a while."

He glared as most of the students gave low cheers, "Don't think that means I won't be giving labs most of the time, Shinigami-sama merely said 'every once in a while.'"

The groans made the scientist grin, "Okay! Let's get started!"

Turning to the board, Stein began to write as he spoke rapidly, hearing the frantic writing of the teenagers behind him, "Everyone is able to shoot their soul wavelength through his or her hands, paralyzing the opponent if the shock is strong enough. I and Black*Star are the only ones that are able to shoot their wavelengths through their hands at the moment, but if you practi-"

"I, THE GREAT BLACK*STAR PWN YOU ALL!" (A/N: No need who to say it is here.)

Crona stared up at the blue-haired assassin who was standing high on the row above her, one leg standing on his seat and the other on the desk with one of his hands on his hips and the other pointing toward the ceiling. A happy grin was plastered on his face as he enjoyed the stares that were on him.

"Black*Star, sit down." Stein ordered.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Black*Star crossed his arms, "All of you have no sense of fun if you ignore me, you should be grateful to have the great me in your presence!"

Tsubaki tugged at his white shorts asking him to please sit before he got another day of detention, smiling when the ninja obeyed her. Black*star grumbled about not being born too early, how he wasn't in the right "era", where people would _appreciate_ him and his "glory". Stein began to teach again and the students returned to their writing notes as the professor spoke.

Crona still was confused at the shooting wavelengths, how did you get your soul to produce electricity and shoot it out through your hands? Black*Star was able to do it, Stein too, but they were both powerful, Crona knew Stein was, Black*Star seemed he would be if he tried. Still writing the teacher's words onto her sheet of notebook paper, Crona sighed, would she ever be able to catch up speed?

Maka saw her friend struggling to grasp the lesson, though it was understandable, since she had no reason to shoot her wavelength through her hands what with always having Ragnarok. Crona probably didn't understand it as easily since she probably didn't see a use for it herself, unlike the other students who could separate from their partners. The swordsman's dark navy eyes were squinted in concentration as she jotted down everything Stein said, trying to get every word.

The scythe technician wondered at Crona's confusion, if this was getting to her, it would be a good idea for the swordsman to have help. Maka almost grinned at the thought that flew threw her mind, it was time for Death the Kid to step in with Crona's studies. After all, Maka had already said previously that he would tutor the swordsman, and he would definitely do it, out of fear of course, but that didn't matter.

The rest of the class period went smoothly, a little bumpy for Crona, but not too hard. Lunch was something the swordsman came to enjoy, everyone chatting more freely then in the classroom, loudness not being a problem, which was a good thing in Black*Star's view. Maka talked with Crona, trying to find a topic that was familiar to the demon sword wielder, but eventually having to push away an eager Taichi from talking to Crona.

Of course the male blonde had pushed his way through Maka and forced himself into the space beside Crona, "Hey!"

The pink haired meister smiled sheepishly, "U-um, h-hello, Taichi-kun."

Taichi's bright turquoise eyes sparkled, "Ryzo and I were going to take a mission out in Maine, I wanted to know if you wanted to come with us!"

"O-okay, when is it?" Crona asked.

"Next week, Wednesday." Taichi answered.

With the male blonde's hopeful smile, Crona couldn't disappoint him, "A-alright."

Taichi bounced up and grinned at her, patting Crona on the back, "Great! I'll tell Ryzo."

Maka watched as Taichi walked away and turned to her friend, "It's really wonderful that you're socializing with other people, but Taichi of everyone?"

The swordsman blushed, "H-he does make me uncomfortable, b-but I don't want to hurt his feelings."

Maka beamed, "That's nice of you, Crona. But if he starts to be too forward, just tell me, I'll handle him."

Crona blinked and hoped that Taichi wouldn't do anything too abruptly, since she knew that Maka's way of 'handling him' would be to physically injure the boy with one of her thick books. Soon lunch was over, and an ending result of Crona getting a few mouthfuls of food before Ragnarok took his share, which was what his meister wasn't fast enough to eat.

Returning, Stein said that his lesson on shooting wavelengths was over and it was time to dissect. They were going to be dissecting cockroach, since Stein was curious how the bug was able to still survive for a day with its head cut off, their assignment was to see if you could find out why.

Crona looked down to the large brown bug that was set in front of her, "Ew."

Maka was her partner, obviously, and scrunched up her nose, "I'm not a big fan of bugs."

Grabbing the small scalpel beside her, Crona touched the cockroach with the tip of the blade on its torso, "So we have to cut its head off and see if we can figure out how it survives."

"Yep." Maka replied.

The large brown bug squirmed from under Crona's scalpel, trying to escape from the girls, "It wouldn't be very good if this escaped and found its way into someone's clothes."

Maka and Crona looked at Liz for her comment, the pistol saw her friend's stares and defended, "Well it's true! I hate these stupid crawlies."

The swordsman slit through the cockroach's body, taking off its head with a straight clean cut. The head rolled slightly, but couldn't get far with its half-moon shape. The liquid inside the bug leaked onto the white paper below it, the paper that was used whenever they were to dissect anything.

Predictably, several of the girls squealed when the bug squirmed and tried to run away, and eventually Liz's comment came true. It was Black*Star who was the unlucky victim of trying to shake the cockroach from his long shorts, punching it various places trying to smash it, only to hurt himself instead. Stein chuckled in low delight toward the ninja's uncomfort; most of the students could tell the professor was enjoying this.

Once class was over, and Stein celebrating that he had figured out how the bug survived, all the students shuffled from the classroom, eager to go home. Maka laughed as Tsubaki had to assist Black*Star in getting the cockroach to leave his shorts, finally pulling the large bug out, and Stein plucking it lightly from her hand to put it and the other escaped cockroaches in a box.

Maka and Crona left the room together in a good mood with Black*Star behind them saying that the cockroach just couldn't resist his "godly body".

Crona waved to Maka, "I'm heading back to my room."

"Ah, Crona." Maka stopped her, "I want you to do something."

The swordsman blinked curiously, "W-what is it, Maka?"

Maka gave a nervous chuckle, "I was just thinking that maybe Death the Kid could help you, well, study, since it seems you're having trouble."

Crona turned paler than she already naturally was, "What?"

"Well, he _is_ a shinigami, so he should know the most out of everyone except Shinigami-sama himself. I think he'd be able to teach you better than I could." Maka rushed.

"Okay…" Crona answered in a faint whisper.

Maka smiled and patted her friend's shoulder, "Don't worry, I promise I'll make sure he's being nice."

The swordsman shifted, "Alright, Maka."

"You go wait in your room for Kid, he'll be there."

With a small nod, Crona turned to leave for her room, "Whatever you say, Maka."

Maka watched as the girl walked through crowd of people in the hall, her thin figure slipping past everyone, going to her cell. Smiling, the scythe technician looked for the boy she was looking for, spotting the familiar shinigami a few meters ahead, trying not to touch any of the people surrounding him.

Shoving through everyone, Maka made her way in front of Death the Kid, "Wait."

The shinigami froze and looked at Maka fearfully, "Yes?"

"I want you," The scythe technician emphasized by pointing to him, "to tutor Crona."

"What?" Death the Kid's eyes widened.

Putting her hands on her hips, Maka gave him a stern look and explained, "She's having a bit of trouble in class, and you are going to help her."

Death the Kid's wide eyes narrowed, "Why? Couldn't you do it?"

"I _could_, but I'm sure your teaching methods are plenty enough to help Crona." Maka gave the boy a smug smile.

Shoulders slumped, Death the Kid grumbled, "Where do I go?"

"She's in her room." Maka answered cheerily, "It's cell number twenty seven."

Kid nodded, not wanting to tell the meister that he already knew where the Demon Swordsman's room was, that would only raise questions. Death the Kid made his way in the opposite of Maka, reluctantly going to the room of his "enemy", feeling that he was going to regret the rest of the day, which would probably happen.

The corridors had emptied out slightly with everyone in haste to get home, giving the shinigami more space to walk through the students without having to dodge elbows from jabbing him. Several of the students watched him as Death the Kid walked, grumbling, to the cellars of his father's school, raising eyebrows at his grumpiness.

His loud footsteps seemed to boom in the echoing stone halls, but Death the Kid wasn't really concerned whether the Demon Sword would hear his approach or not. As he neared Crona's cell, Death the Kid tried to calm himself, it wouldn't do any good to frighten the thing; Maka was something he feared, and Kid wasn't very afraid of many things.

The metal door stood in front of him, the faded black numbers of 27 printed on the surface, the paint needed a new coat, but Death the Kid didn't care for it. Kid pressed his ear against the door to see if he could hear what was going on inside of the room, only for it to be completely silent in the swordsman's cell. Composing himself, Death the Kid raised a fist and knocked as lightly as he could with his knuckles.

Soft shuffling was heard behind the door and Death the Kid backed away slightly when it opened, allowing him entrance, the Demon Swordsman timidly looking at him with the deep blue eyes. Crona was fidgeting and was a light gray with hints of red covering the skin in flushing with the shinigami's presence. The swordsman went back into the room and Death the Kid followed silently, his eyes narrowed.

"Maka sent me here to help you with school work." Kid stated quietly through his teeth, trying hard to be polite and not scare the swordsman.

"I know…" Crona whispered.

Sighing, Death the Kid said, "I suppose we should get started, right?"

Getting a nod in reply, Death the Kid directed, "Get your textbook, please."

In retrieving the textbook, Crona brought it over to the shinigami, and waited for his instruction. His hands were behind his back, which made Crona less afraid, and his yellow eyes were serious, Kid was about to say something but closed his mouth. Crona wondered why his eye suddenly twitched, his mouth opened again, but nothing came out, and he raised a hand from behind his back and left it in the air.

Eyes wide now, Crona speculating that he would throw a punch, the swordsman wondered what the boy was staring at. Ragnarok was wondering the same thing, but didn't want to come out to make his rude insult, even he learned that acting like that around Death the Kid wouldn't result in something good.

"Y-your…" he began, "J-jeans…"

Looking down to the article of clothing, Crona stuttered, "Wh-what a-about them?"

"Th-they are…" Death the Kid looked like was about to choke.

Crona was ready to start panicking, "W-what?"

"Unsymmetrical."

The swordsman blinked, "Um, w-what?"

Death the Kid swayed as his leg began to feel weak, "It's unsymmetrical. They aren't symmetrical."

Crona was frozen, what was happening to Shinigami's son? "Ah, shinigami-san?"

He clutched his head, "Asymmetry!"

Ragnarok popped out from Crona's back, "What's your problem, Three Stripes?

"It's finally caught up with me." Death the Kid said, mostly to himself.

Kid looked up and released his head, and straightened his coat. His cold eyes looked weary as they stared at Crona, as if he wanted to attack the Demon Sword, but he was too lazy to do it at the moment. The swordsman was afraid that the shinigami would attack; it was something Death the Kid wouldn't hesitate to do.

The shinigami closed his eyes and muttered softly, "Asymmetrical, asymmetrical, asymmetrical… everything, Liz and Patty are going to pay…"

"I-I c-can ch-change if you w-want me to." Crona stuttered.

Holding the bridge of his nose, Death the Kid pleaded, "Please. It's all unsymmetrical, the jeans, even the shirt! At least the dress you own is symmetrical, except for the buttons, the stupid buttons!"

Death the Kid exited Crona's cell and closed the door behind him, the _thud_ echoed his annoyance at all the symmetry he had ignored for the past days. And since the shinigami was very annoyed, the slam was a bit loud, making Crona wince at the harsh noise.

"Why are you going to change?" Ragnarok snapped.

Crona looked up at him, "W-well, if D-Death the Kid wants me to, I have to. I don't want to anger him."

Ragnarok growled, "What if he comes in on you!"

His meister blinked, "Out of everything he's said and done, I don't think he would. Besides, there isn't even a lock to my door."

"Then do it in the corner, no one can see you there." Ragnarok optioned.

"Okay…"

Retrieving one of the dresses from her dresser, Crona walked over to the corner, where Death the Kid would be unlikely to see if the boy were to suddenly barge in. Slipping into the familiar black garment, feeling happy at the covering of her arms once again, and tucked Lily's necklace to in a position so that the chain wouldn't be seen at the collar. Satisfied when it wouldn't be seen, Crona folded her bought clothes over her arm.

Crona walked hesitantly to her door, where Death the Kid would be mumbling outside unhappily, and peeked outside of it timidly. The shinigami was leaning against the stone wall opposite of Crona's door, still pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes closed, waiting.

Seeing the swordsman, Death the Kid seemed to glower his yellow eyes in Crona's direction, making the timid meister whimper. In the demon sword wielder's arms was the set of clothes that had been previously worn, which relieved Death the Kid to see the swordsman in something symmetrical, if he had to spend time with Crona, he might as well not have to suffer too much.

"Hand me your clothes." Kid ordered.

Startled at the suddenness, Crona quickly gave the shinigami the pieces of fabric, he took them with precision to where neither of them were even close to touching. Why he had asked for them though, Crona was completely curious to what the meaning was.

"I thought you only had your dress." The shinigami said expressionlessly.

Crona froze, "I-I, uh, M-Maka g-got them for me because I only had one dress at the time. B-but now I have th-the ones from w-when we went to my old home."

He nodded emotionlessly, "Where are the rest?"

"I-in my dresser." What was the shinigami doing?

"Go get them." Death the Kid's eyes were blank.

Obeying the order, Crona fetched the other clothes and returned at the speed of, what could only be, light. Kid mechanically took them and Crona's wide blue eyes were confused as the shinigami's yellow eyes stared.

He looked away and mumbled, "I must go dispose of these, it would kill me to see their disorder. Go to the school library, bring your textbook, I will be there momentarily."

As Kid walked away, Crona blinked at his strangeness, but if this would make him hate her less, it was worth it. Crona hugged the textbook tightly to her chest and began to make her way down the stone corridor. Walking slowly, the swordsman wondered where the library was; she had never been there, so how would she find it? Going by instinct, Crona went down hall that she felt was the right way looking out for any hints that would point the direction she wanted, like a sign.

In looking for anything helpful Crona ran into someone, stuttering apologies frantically, the person laughed and said that it was okay.

It was a woman with long brown-orange hair (A/N: ?), she had one golden brown eyes with the other covered by an eye-patch. She was wearing a long-sleeved ankle-length dress, much like Crona's, but the neckline swooped down and visibly showed her cleavage, the sleeves hung from her wrist baggily, and the dress had yellow-zigzagged triangle designs. The woman wore light periwinkle-gray high-heeled boots and had a warm smile on her face as she looked at Crona.

"Hello, you must be a student." The woman greeted.

Crona waved, "H-hello, d-do you know the way to the library?"

The staff member blinked with her one uncovered eye, "Ah, I think I can help you find it, follow me."

Grabbing the swordsman's wrist, the lady dragged Crona down the hall and informed, "My name is Marie, I'm going to be a teacher here in the next few days. Who are you?"

Trying to stay in rhythm with the cheerful woman, Crona answered, "C-Cro-n-na."

"That's a cute name!" Marie chirped.

Crona made no reply, but winced when Ragnarok came out of her spine and hit her head, "What about me?"

Marie's one eyes sparkled in awe at the small adorable blob on the student's head, "Aw~! What is that?"

Ragnarok snipped at the to-be-teacher, "I'm not cute!"

Marie giggled and she was gushing about Ragnarok for a while before continuing the walk to the library.

…

Several long minutes later, both Marie and Crona breathless from the dashing through the school, the two finally found the large door that had a brass plaque that had _Library _written in a fine cursive with the help of Sid, who they luckily found while lost in desperate search of their destination.

"Okay…" Marie said breathlessly, "We're here."

Crona gave a small nod, her legs tired, "Thank… you."

She stumbled in through the doors due to her wobbly legs, parting with the Death Scythe after Marie gave a small wave, looking around the large room for Death the Kid. Looking around, Crona saw that there were high shelves of books, there was even two more levels, thin walkways above the ground that lead to the books that were to the near ceiling, railing trailing the barriers. If one were to push a student from one of the floors, it would insure great pain and broken bones, and possibly, if landing right, death.

Shivering at the thought, Crona spotted the shinigami sitting patiently at one of the numerous round tables there were in the library, reading the same thick book he was reading a couple days ago. Timidly walking over, Crona's hesitant footsteps were heard softly padding on the thin carpet, causing Death the Kid's yellow eyes to lift up and glower at the approaching meister.

"It took you a while to get here." He stated.

The swordsman blushed, "Ah, well, a woman named Marie tried to help me here."

Kid's hard eyes lowered back onto his antique book, "That must explain it."

Crona sat on one of the chairs that were opposite of the shinigami to insure distance, even though they had been forced together several times now my Maka and Shinigami, neither of them were on good terms with the other. Closing the thick book, the pages yellowing from age, Death the Kid gave the teenager in front of him a serious stare, causing Crona to panic fearfully.

"Did you bring the textbook with you?" the shinigami asked.

Laying the book onto the table softly, letting it connect with the table with small '_thunk'_s as the hard cover hit the dark wood. Death the Kid nodded approvingly and reached slowly over to it, allowing Crona to snatch back the hand that was still resting on the schoolbook, sliding it back in his direction.

Flipping to the first page Death the Kid furrowed his eyebrows at Crona, "Let's start with the first basics and work up higher."

Crona gave a nod and the shinigami began, "Describe a human soul."

Hesitating to answer confidently, Crona stuttered, "Uh, well… A-a human soul has the innocence of not killing and consuming another human's soul. B-because of its purity, human souls are more powerful, and with consuming it, the weapon that takes it, gets stronger. I-it's illegal th-though take the soul of a human, against Shinigami-sama's rules."

"Describe a kishin egg's soul." Death the Kid instructed next, looking back at Crona with his intense eyes.

"A-a kishin soul i-is one that used to be human, b-but consumed too many human souls and has become p-part of Shinigami-sama's list for e-execution. S-students at Shibusen t-take these souls as part of the g-goal to make their weapon a D-Death Scythe, these souls are okay t-to take because t-their bad."

This was making Crona uncomfortable, since explaining it was like describing her life before Shibusen, and it looked like Death the Kid knew this as well. The shinigami looked like he enjoyed the swordsman's uncomfort, making Crona realize how bad it had been being with Medusa.

'You're still a monster.' Kid thought, 'Even with the human souls taken away, I can't trust you. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to trust you, ever.'

"Describe a witch's soul." Death the Kid saw the swordsman jump at his suddenness.

"Er, a w-witch's soul is the soul of a witch, a p-powerful being that u-uses magic as their fighting skill. Their souls are e-extremely powerful, it is the final step in the process of making a Death Scythe."

The shinigami gave a nod and flipped the page to the other side, "Tell me about meisters and their weapons."

Crona shifted and tried to find a way to word it, "A… meister… is the one capable of wielding a weapon, t-they have… the bloodline that g-gives them the natural talent to fight. W-weapons originally came from the witches, the blood that allows them to transform. The… c-creator of demon weapons, Arachne," Death the Kid saw Crona shiver with saying the name, though he didn't know why, "l-let weapons come from her experiments, which is how we have our weapons today to hunts kishin eggs and witches."

Death the Kid was somewhat impressed at how the swordsman was responding, the formal vocabulary that Crona was using, it was amusing.

"Now explain Soul Resonance." He ordered.

"Um, when the meister and their weapon link their souls together for a more powerful attack toward their opponent. With their souls in sync, the wavelengths can go through the opponent more easily, allowing a faster victory."

Death the Kid flipped another page, "Good, now tell me about shooting wavelengths."

'Crap.'

Crona struggled a bit to explain, "W-well, w-when a meister is… powerful enough, he or she can shoot their wavelengths through their hands and harm the opponent internally…?"

"Close enough." The shinigami mumbled as Crona let out a sigh of relief, "The next thing you should know is the power of a Death Scy-"

"Death the Kid-san!"

The doors to the library were open and the familiar blue zombie was standing with his hands in his pockets, looking toward the small shinigami. Closing the textbook, Death the Kid placed it onto the table with a thick thud and stood up mannerly, turning to the past teacher.

"Yes, Sid-sensei?" the shinigami asked in the same cold politeness he used with Crona, obviously he still wasn't happy about spending his time with the Demon Sword.

Sid leaned against the doorway, "Shinigami-sama wishes to speak with you."

"Ah, yes." Death the Kid left the room without so much a backwards glance to Crona.

With the small shinigami gone, Sid shook his head, and saw Crona abandoned at the table, blinking curiously at the tutor's exit. The zombie walked over and stood at talking distance from the swordsman.

"The boy needs to loosen up, I'm not going to tell him that, it wasn't how I was to tell people the flaws of their personality." Sid said to the meister.

Crona gave a small nod and picked up her textbook, "I suppose I should ask Maka if she could help me."

The swordsman gave the excuse for her to leave, still uncomfortable around the zombie, and headed out of the library. Deciding to not ask Marie again for directions, Crona relied on her gut to make it back to her room, Ragnarok complaining about Death's son the whole way.

"That little bastard, why does Maka keep trying to get you two to spend time with each other?" the blob asked.

His meister sighed, "I think because Maka feels that the more time I'm around him, shinigami-kun will get more used to me."

Ragnarok snorted, "Yeah, right."

Miraculously finding the way to her room, Crona slipped inside and went to her beloved corner, snuggling into a small ball. Ragnarok remained on the spot of his meister's head out of boredom and began to pull at strands of Crona's hair, entertaining himself by playing with the lavender locks.

Of course, Crona didn't mind, he was doing it in a non-painful type of way, and she didn't really care at the moment. With the dream she had that morning, Crona was grateful that her partner was present; his company was appreciated when he wasn't being mean.

The weapon poked at the chain of Crona's necklace out of boredom, causing his meister to take the piece of jewelry from the inside of her collar and look at it. Curious, Crona opened the small locket, and as Lily said, it contained nothing inside. That would fall out.

Something was engraved in the silver of the necklace, but Crona couldn't read it because her vision was blurry from looking down to her neck. She was about to unhook it to see what it was, but before she was even able to release the locket itself, a knock was heard at the door.

…

**(*) If you've read the manga, imagine Crona when they reintroduce her. When I describe Crona right here I'm kind of thinking when they show the frame of Crona when she's standing sideways to the left with her swords (only without the extra arms) with the characters in Japanese that say 'the darkness' behind her. Look it up if you don't know.**

**A/N: Erm, not the best chapter in the world, but passable. Little bit of writer's block on the chapter thirteen, but that's just because I'm writing it on paper, which takes forever, once I get it onto Microsoft Word it'll be like lightning. Anyways, please review~! * Puppy dog eyes * Please. **


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Do-do-do-do-do~! Boredom, it makes me do strange things. Anyways, thank you to all of those who reviewed, I am pleasantly grateful~. Oh, and my friend (K8Dunn) just put up a new story, please read it, she's good at stories. It's one of those Truth or Dare torturing the SE cast thing, it's very interesting, and I shall be a guest in it (since we made it up together and if she didn't include me someone would have to get hurt). The first chapter is up, I don't know when I'll make my appearance though, I'll have to ask… Back to my story!**

**Princess Falling Star: Ah, thank you. And you have given me a new quote to which I shall say and share with others. I don't know why, but when I find something funny I always quote it. Holy crud muffins~ hee, hee, hee.**

**Primitiveradiogoddess: I thank you for your compliments, I enjoy reading your reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, but oh, how I wish I did… (the OCs are still all mine)**

…

Chapter 12:

Without Ragnarok

Jumping at the sudden noise, even though it was soft, Crona quickly closed the silver locket and shoved it back into the safety of her dress, adjusting it once again for the chain to not be seen from the top of the collar. The meister was curios about who would be at her door, Ragnarok was curious as well as to whom it could be, but began to complain when his meister got up to get the door.

"W-who is it?" she asked.

"Death the Kid." A solemn voice responded.

Crona bit down on her lip as the answer came from the other side of the door and hesitantly walked over, the hinges creaking as the swordsman opened the door slowly. Death the Kid was, indeed, standing on the other side, the seriousness of his voice was always familiar, and he had his hands behind his back.

"H-hello." Crona greeted, wary of the gunman's presence.

The shinigami gave a stern nod and asked, "May I come in?"

Crona jumped out of the way, "Ah, yes."

Death the Kid stepped into the dungeon-like cell and Crona shut the door, his expression didn't waver as the swordsman sat back down in the corner of the room, "My father and I discussed something."

Crona's eyes widened and began to panic, "O-okay."

Kid brought out one of the hands that was behind his back to present a small vial filled with a deep purple substance sloshing inside of it and lifted it up to the string of light that came from the window, watching as the color became lighter. The swordsman blinked at it curiously, wondering at why Shinigami had given his son something like that.

Crona decided to voice the question, "U-um, w-what is it?"

His harsh yellow eyes turned from the vial to the swordsman, "It's Vraisemblance Sedate."

Ragnarok asked the thought that ran through his meister's head, "Huh?"

"It's an liquid chemical that was created in Lille, France, hence, where is got its French name. Vraisemblance Sedate translates, roughly, into 'truth tranquilizer'. Since Ragnarok refused to translate the witch writing on Medusa's wall, my father thought that my idea to use this would work for our needs." Death the Kid explained.

"S-so, it's t-to make R-Ragnarok t-tell the t-t-truth?" Crona stuttered nervously.

The shinigami nodded, "Yes."

"Hold on there, shinigami." Ragnarok cut in, "How do we know that not just some poison your going to use to kill us out?"

Crona hadn't thought of that.

The gunman snorted, "Realistic idea, but I assure you that it is not poison."

Ragnarok's x pupil eyes narrowed suspiciously as the shinigami neared slightly closer, handing the vial to him from arms reach, it appeared the boy was still refusing to come in close contact with the swordsman. The demon weapon snatched the small container with his round hands and gave it a hard stare, turning it over guardedly.

"You said it was a tranquilizer." Ragnarok stated, "This gonna knock me out?"

Death the Kid nodded in an almost business-like way, his expression still holding its expressionless demeanor, "Yes, It takes a while for the chemical to activate, during that time you are unconscious. We were originally going to have your meister drink it, but that would affect Crona as well, since that isn't necessary, we will only have you consume it."

Ragnarok grumbled, "Yeah, but if I drink it, who'll be around to make sure you don't try to murder Crona? This little idiot doesn't have it to defend herself."

Death the Kid's yellow eyes darkened as he stared in the duos direction, his black bangs shadowing his face, "Now what would I gain from killing your meister if it would terminate you as well? That would only waste giving you the chemical, it's very rare, the only reason I'm holding this right now is because Professor Stein is the one who created it."

Ragnarok growled lowly at the shinigami's comment and tried to not lash out, "It won't affect Crona?"

"Professor Stein altered it to only affect you." Kid responded.

Crona during this time was having panicked thoughts, Ragnarok was going to be unconscious for, who knows how long, and it would be just like that morning, being all alone. The dream returned with vengeance, the misty depression of Ragnarok's absence eerie.

"Fine then." The demon sword said, "I'll drink it. But only because if I didn't I'd be sure to get in trouble some way!"

Ragnarok felt his meister suck in a breath when he yanked out the small cork in the vial; he stared suspiciously at the chemical and sniffed at it. Not smelling anything that seemed life threatening, Ragnarok opened his mouth and poured the violet liquid down his throat, wincing lightly at how unnaturally cold it felt. The vraisemblance sedate was thick and, as he swallowed it, slowly trickled down his throat into his body, the iciness making the weapon shiver and Crona worry.

Feeling the last of the tranquilizer go down, Ragnarok looked toward the shinigami, who was looking at him patiently with his yellow and brown eyes blinking uninterestedly, hands held behind his back in that formal manner. Ragnarok began to feel sluggish atop his meister's head and he could feel the sedate taking affect already.

His vision began to blur and the colors began to slur together as well, solid objects became liquids, and the light was dimming to a black.

Ragnarok slumped onto Crona's head and mumbled lazily, "I feel… so… damn… tired."

Crona ignored that Death the Kid was still in the room, the boy was merely waiting for the weapon to fall unconscious, and patted the small blob on the head, "Then stop trying to fight it and go to sleep."

"You may want to return inside your meister's body," Death the Kid threw in, "if not, Crona will have to drag your body everywhere."

With another growl toward the shinigami, Ragnarok retreated into his domain of Crona's spine, and the black darkness let the drowsiness consume him. Crona felt when the weapon was put into slumber, she could almost feel his snores tingling at her spine. It was hard to keep composed in front of the shinigami, with the dread she had inside, the fear of Ragnarok's absence coming to reality.

"Your weapon will be unconscious for about two days, when he wakes up, immediately come to my father's office." Death the Kid instructed.

Crona gave a weak nod and the shinigami left, closing the door with a hollow thump. Hearing the footsteps walk away, Crona slumped onto the floor, clenching the fabric of her dress at the knees, biting down harshly on her lip.

'Ragnarok…?' Crona asked through her thoughts with empty hopes, knowing that the weapon wasn't going to reply.

Dragging herself into her corner, the one that she, out of sheer boredom, named Mr. Corner, also lacking the creativity of a better name, Crona rocked herself in a tight ball. Her weapon had, of course, made fun of his meister for naming an inanimate object, a corner at that, something so lame and child-like.

Leaning her head against the large stones of the wall, Crona knew that it was possible that she should be cherishing the release from her weapon's small abuse. But Crona knew that she couldn't be happy about it, he was her brother, in some sense. They weren't related, no, but they both cared for each other like siblings.

Uncaringly slumping onto the floor in her small ball, arms still wrapped around her knees, Crona let her cheek rest against the coolness of the stones beneath her. The sunlight filtering down from the windows spread softly on the gray color of the room, the brightest color the lavender of Crona's hair.

The swordsman's blue blinked slowly at the unfamiliar feeling of emptiness inside of her, the blood seeming lifeless from the absence of Ragnarok's emotion. Breathing deeply, Crona sat up pulling her torso from the ground and staring around blankly, eyes settling on the dresser.

Walking to it, Crona pulled out her mother's journal and plucked the pen from its resting place atop the dresser, and whipping out the small key that was placed inside the dresser. Unlocking it and flipping the right page, Crona put the unwilling pen to the paper, almost as if the object could sense the dark tension of the witch's diary. The pen seemed to waver in the swordsman's hands, struggling to worm away from the page; narrowing her eyes at the strangeness of the supposedly inanimate object, Crona restrained it and scribbled down onto the paper.

_January 3__rd__- Given a chemical by Death the Kid, Ragnarok is going to be unconscious for about two days. Nothing else of interest._

Relocking it, putting the journal back in the drawer, and setting the pen back in its place on the dresser, Crona couldn't think of anything else to do. Leaning against the flat of the dresser, she tilted her head and blinked wearily.

Sighing, Crona pushed up from the ground, maybe she should see Maka to help with the situation of boredom. If Maka was busy or not at the apartment, Crona would have to settle for flipping through her textbook again.

…

Shinigami was twiddling with the empty vial his son had given to him, Ragnarok was now going to be in a tranquilized state for around forty-eight hours and should be able to translate the witch writing on Medusa's wall. As well as to what the witch's journal read, but Crona would answer that truthfully even without the vraisemblance sedate.

Death was watching the thermometer like meter in his boredom, waiting for any signs. The insanity meter had been resting on sixty seven (the absence of Ragnarok lowered the swordsman's madness slightly), but it had shot up to eighty for a moment. It made the shinigami suspicious, it was now twice that that had happened so unexpectedly. Perhaps Crona was using the pen on Medusa's journal? The diary was bound to have a large amount of magic and lingering wavelengths of Medusa's soul.

Going to his mirror, Shinigami scribbled some numbers onto the screen and watched as the ripples went across the glass. The small square in the middle was a deep shade of blue, the blanket hanging over the glass blocking any vision into the cell. Shinigami gave a small chuckle, it was Crona's work obviously. He could understand though, the child was paranoid; when Kid was small, he was always cautious whenever passing a mirror.

Since the microphone on the pen was crushed, he would be able to hear (but not see) from the mirror in Crona's cell. At the moment, in Crona's room, everything was silent and nothing seemed to be happening, Shinigami heard some shuffled of fabric, but that was all.

"Father?"

Shinigami quickly cut of the connections to Crona's mirror and swiveled frantically to his son, who was raising an eyebrow curiously at the hurried actions.

Death the Kid shook his head and looked back up at his father, "Father? What was it that you were doing?"

"Ah," Shinigami laughed nervously, "keeping in touch with the rest of Death City!"

His son's eyes narrowed, "You're not peeping on people on their first date again, are you?"

The reaper raised his hands blamelessly, "No! But you have to admit, watching them is so cute~!"

Death the Kid let his yellow eyes blink with boredom, "What was it?"

"I was looking in on Crona to see if she was faring well without Ragnarok." Shinigami sent a look in his son's direction, "It just so happened that I didn't want her to know that someone was spying on her with your voice coming in out of no where."

Kid sighed, "It's only been five minutes, I'm sure that your concerns aren't necessary."

Shinigami tilted his head, "Ah, well it's always good to have concerns for people. Especially those like Crona."

Before Kid could start an argument about his 'enemy', Shinigami asked, "Now what is it that you came here for?"

"I was going to ask if I could borrow four security cameras."

You could tell the elder shinigami was raising an eyebrow behind his mask, "What may I ask _for_, my dear son?"

"To make sure that my weapons don't come to disorder my room again." Death the Kid answered easily.

Shinigami still gave his son a confused look, "Um… why do you need four?"

Death the Kid averted his eyes to the side, settling his vision on one of the many misshapen black crosses of the room, "Ah, for… symmetry purposes."

"Oooh~! Has my son returned to his normal self?" Shinigami asked cheerily.

His son's yellow eyes narrowed agitatedly, "Father, may I use the cameras?"

"I suppose," Shinigami responded, "There are some extras in the storage closet down the hall, you know how to set them up, right?"

Death the Kid nodded and began to turn away, "Thank you, Father."

"Ah, no problem~!" Shinigami bounced playfully.

Kid walked away and looked at the sharp edges of the guillotines above him while walking the narrow path to the door at the end of the room. Exiting his father's quarters, Kid made his way to the storage closet that held the extra security cameras.

Inside the closet-like room was darkness, there wasn't s light switch, so Kid had to grasp in the dark. Finally feeling the hard plastic and metal of the security cameras with his hands, Death the Kid lifted several of them from the limp duct-taped box they rested in.

Brushing off the building dust from the cameras, Death the Kid piled the ones he needed into his arms and left the storage room, closing the door behind him and cautiously making sure the security cameras didn't fall. The boy walked the three miles to Gallows Manor, not wanting to accidentally drop one of the cameras while riding Beelzebub, that wouldn't end happily.

Finally reaching his home, Death the Kid entered the empty mansion, glad that it was Friday and his weapons were at the mall lounging around. Had they been there, Death the Kid would have been bombarded with questions and dragged into the kitchen for interrogation.

Entering his room, Death the Kid went to work at putting the cameras in the top corners of his room, retrieving a drill to reach the wires behind the wall. After several hours of setting the cameras up, and five minutes of making sure they were all pointing at the same angle for symmetry, Death the Kid was satisfied with his accomplishment.

Dusting off the powder from drilling into the wall from his coat, Death the Kid exited his room and decided to set recording tapes into the cameras later, going to just sit on his living room couch. Laying himself onto the soft cream-colored piece of furniture, Kid let his left arm rest over his eyes, peacefully breathing and doing nothing. Attached to both sides of the couch's arms (for symmetry) were two small trays built into the material, they both held remotes, one on each tray. On the left was the remote to the stereo system that sat below the TV in the open shelf of the entertainment center, and on the right was the remote to the TV itself, Death the Kid reached above his head to grab the remote to the stereo with his right hand.

Grabbing it effortlessly, Death the Kid pointed it to the north of him and pressed the button for the music to roll into the silent room. Blindly flipping through the several CD choices in the expensive player, the shinigami settled for something soothing and listened to _Salve Maria- Peace be With You*_. Within a minute of the song playing, Death the Kid fell asleep and stayed that way for an hour.

The shinigami was bolted awake when he heard blare of the, oh so familiar, song by Vocaloid _World is Mine: Hatsune Miku version_. Death the Kid rubbed his gold eyes and sent a glare in the direction of the lack leather chair to his right.

"Liz…" He grumbled.

The light-brown haired pistol looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "What?"

"Why did you have to wake me up to blaring music!" he growled.

Patty, in the background, was chanting the lyrics incorrectly, just staying with the tune of the music. She then bounced over to her meister and grinned, "We thought that the door would have woken you up, but maybe not!"

"I didn't hear you come in."

Patty had resumed singing the cheery lyrics to the song, interrupting herself to answer, "You were out~! Onee-chan slammed the door."

"Why?"

The high pitched note of Hatsune Miku singing drowned the shinigami's voice, "WILL YOU TURN THAT DOWN!"

Liz rolled her eyes and lowered the volume pounding from the stereo to a tolerable point, "There."

"Thank you," Kid mumbled, "Now, why did Liz slam the door, Patty?"

Cutting of her lyrics again, Patty answered cheerily, swaying her body to the music, "Onee-chan got mad because a none of the boys at the mall talked to her today!"

The shinigami rubbed his head as he looked toward the elder pistol, who was flipping irritably through a magazine, "Ah, maybe you should straighten your hair out again."

Liz had returned to her normal attire of clothing, but had yet to continue straightening her hair. So it frizzed at the tips and she had to continually comb through the locks with her fingers, but now that her meister was more or less out of his depressed state, she could worry less on him and more on her appearance.

Receiving no answer, Death the Kid lifted himself from the couch and dragged himself into the kitchen to get a glass of water, muttering to himself as he pulled one of the glasses from a cabinet. After taking large drink of water, Death the Kid leaned against the counter and stared at the ceiling, glass still in hand.

Once Liz and Patty started blaring the music again with song types Kid wasn't all terribly fond of, he decided to leave the house. The pounding chorus of Diggy-MO's _Bakusuo Yumeuta_ was playing as the shinigami walked out of the door, finally decided what he would do.

…

Crona was sitting on Maka's couch, watching as her blonde friend gave stern directions to the purple cat in front of her while Crona was there. Out of distrust to the cat and concern for the swordsman, Maka laid down rules for Blair while Crona was present.

So far the rules consisted of _stay in cat form unless you have to; if you have to return to your witch body, you must be fully clothed_; _say nothing inappropriate to, or around Crona; you are not allowed to hug her._ The purple bat stared up at Maka with her large honey eyes, with fake innocence, giving a bob of her head at each of the rules the blonde stated.

After Maka was satisfied with all of her rules, Blair pretty much had to leave the room to go take a nap with not being able to have any fun.

Maka sat next to Crona on the couch and smiled, "Thanks for coming over!"

"Y-you're… welcome?" Crona responded, confused to why Maka was thanking her for coming.

"What is it that you wanted to tell me?" Maka asked.

When Crona arrived she was going to tell Maka about Ragnarok being tranquilized, but a certain cat had pounced into the conversation and started to swish her paws at the edges of Crona's dress, playing with the black fabric. That was when Maka had to pull the small feline away from her friend and list of her rules.

"Oh," Crona started, "D-death the Kid-san came over to my room a bit after our study session and he gave me a chemical Shinigami-sama told him to give me".

Maka raised a suspicious eyebrow, "He wasn't trying to poison you, was he? If he was, just tell me and I'll-"

"N-no, Maka, he wasn't trying to poison me!" Crona assured the technician, "It was… um… vr-ais…em-blance sedate?"

The scythe technician blinked, "Vraisemblance sedate?"

"Y-yeah, Shinigami-sama apparently said to give it to Ragnarok so he could translate some witch writing we found on our mission." Crona explained.

Maka blinked again, "Isn't that chemical really hard to get?"

Crona fidgeted, "Well, Death the Kid-san said they were only able to get it since Professor Stein was the one who invented it."

"HE DID!" Maka exclaimed/asked.

With a small nod Crona added, "Yes, so Ragnarok is going to be tranquilized for a while…"

The blonde smiled, "It's okay, I'm sure nothing will go wrong. Ragnarok really never comes out much, so it shouldn't really be much different should it?"

"I suppose," Crona replied, "But it feels weird to know that he's more or less gone. He would always comment on things even when he wasn't out."

Wearing a thoughtful expression Maka patted Crona's back softly, "Don't worry, Crona. Ragnarok will be back before you know it! And look on the bright side, when he wakes up, he'll answer any question you'll ask."

"I never thought about that." the swordsman admitted.

The two talked quietly about some other things, and Crona stared at her best friend with wide eyes when she was explaining how Black*Star attempted to cook once. It ended in flames and Tsubaki having to rent them another apartment.

Maka asked Crona if she wanted to watch a movie and received a reply of Crona stumbling that she'd never seen a movie before. While Maka flipped through the channels on the TV, Blair padded into the room and climbed onto the couch in the space between the swordsman and the scythe technician, and crawling lazily onto Crona's lap, causing the swordsman to freeze, but finally relax and stroke the cat's fur.

Blair purred contently and Crona gave a small smile, "She isn't that bad."

Maka looked toward Crona and chuckled lightly, "Yeah, when she actually behaves."

"Maka-chan~, Blair isn't usually bad." The cat pouted.

The scythe technician finally settled on something she had never seen before, it was said to be a horror movie, but since the label said it was a _Twilight Zone_ episode, Maka put it on that.

"_Twilight Zone _isn't really scary since it was made a decade or so ago," Maka explained, "But it's still really good."

Crona nodded and asked what was wrong when Maka narrowed her eyes, the blonde answered, "It's just that this doesn't have the same camera quality in _Twilight Zone_, the picture is a lot clearer."

The title of the show that supposedly wasn't _Twilight Zone_ said _Masters of Horror_, episode _Jennifer_.

Maka raised an eyebrow, "Hm, I've never heard of this before."

Blair took an interest in the show as well, snuggling herself into the soft cotton of Crona's dress, honey eyes watching the TV. About fifteen minutes in, it showed a scene with a cat being torn to shreds, the intestines being pulled out harshly and bloodily.

Blair stared at this wide-eyed and squeamishly. Maka decided to change it since they were all wide eyed, looking away from the poor feline on the screen.

"That was a bit graphic." Maka whispered softly.

Crona continued to pet Blair comfortingly, trying to calm the poor cat witch down, "Yeah…"

After finally just settling and watching an episode from an anime series _Serial Experiments Lain_, with it not having any "inappropriate content" other than some splatters of blood here and there.

At around nine-thirty o' clock, Crona being there three hours, and Soul coming home from hanging out at Black*Star's house, the swordsman decided it was time to make her leave. Crona waved good-bye to Maka, who waved back cheerily from her argument with Soul about not starting diner yet, and left out the door.

It was still winter, just being January and all, so it was already dark out with the streetlights giving off most of the light. Crona sighed and hoped she wouldn't get lost at night by not knowing the streets of Death City by heart, she began to walk down the streets, several cars passing by, helping her with some more light.

The moon wasn't leaking blood from its mouth tonight, which made Crona happy slightly, to know that no one was being murdered… yet, anyways. The swordsman took several random streets in trying to find her way back to Shibusen and wondered if maybe Marie's horrible direction instinct had somehow rubbed off onto her.

What worried Crona was that the more she walked, the less amount of cars she began to see, which shouldn't be a very good sign since Shibusen was in the middle of the city and always had a decent amount of traffic around it. Normally this wouldn't worry Crona much to the extent she was now since she always had Ragnarok to threaten anyone if they started to gang up on her, but today was a different matter.

Certain that Marie had plagued her with her crippled sense of direction after several long minutes of walking, Crona wondered what time it was since she had no watch and wanted to know how long she had been wandering aimlessly. The directions the swordsman went always seemed to have less people than the last, Crona thought to maybe ask directions, but being as timid as she was, it was probable that it wasn't going to happen.

Turning down another street, Crona sighed, she was getting nowhere. Looking up at the sky, the swordsman saw the passing gray clouds; they were thick and heavy. It was probably going to rain soon, and that wouldn't be good for Crona, being incredibly lost at the moment.

Crona walked down the empty sidewalk, the cold night air blowing against her cheeks. The swordsman shivered, the wind soaked through the worn thin material of her dress, Crona wished she owned a sweater. The street she was walking down was in rubble, chunks of the sidewalk were blown of and in small pieces scattered across the road.

It was the area where Asura had destroyed, it was dark, all of the streetlights were either lying dead across the road or flickering with small light. Nobody was around that Crona could see, using her rarely used soul perception, the swordsman could only feel two distant souls.

One was several meters ahead of her, bored and agitated; the other was on the other street away from her and was calm and strolling. At least she wasn't in a deserted area, Crona could ask one of them to help her, but sighed knowing that she would be too nervous.

It was silent; the only noise was Crona's breathing and the wind. The silence was painful without Ragnarok, the absence of insults and demands was odd and made Crona feel lonely. How much longer would it take for the chemical Death the Kid had given Ragnarok to take affect?

She bit her lip and read what street she was wandering on. Giraffe Street, very original. Crona ran her hand across a running strip of remaining and crumbling brick buildings she was walking past, stopping when the string of small companies ended. An ally cut through the middle of the long wall bricks and advertisements.

Looking into the deep darkness of the all, Crona was tempted to enter it, something about the shadows compelled her to go in and sit in the black. Crona walked in, the silky shadows of the dead end ally engulfing her, filling her with an odd kind of calmness, the familiar feel of being in the dark.

The swordsman blinked in confusion when she felt one of the two souls she felt approaching in her direction.

…

He was just walking down the street bored, grumbling to himself in agitation. He had wanted to go to a bat with some of his friends, buy the declined, being the goody-two-shoes that they were, knowing that both he and they were too young to drink. Fake IDs didn't budge them from their stubborn rejection, so now, here he was, dead friggin' bored. That was, until he found entertainment.

A lone girl was walking on the other side of the street, just walking like himself, looking as if she was going nowhere. She was going the opposite direction of him from across the road, she had short lavender hair that hung into her face and wore a thin black dress that went to her mid-calf. The girl looked down a dead-ended alleyway and went in.

He'd seen her before, that thin timid girl. Thinking of something to do now, he jogged across the rubble filled road and followed her down the dead-end ally, knowing that she wouldn't be able to escape

…

***= **_**Salve Maria- Peace be With You is a song in the Soul Eater OST (Original Sound Track), it's known for being Crona's theme, being the song played while being introduced to Maka in Italy's Santa Mario Novella Basilica. Very pretty song that always makes me think of our dark and insane swordsman.**_

**Copyright purposes- I own neither **_**Twilight Zone**_** nor **_**Masters of Horror **__**and**__**Serial Experiments Lain**_**. They belong to their rightful owners.**

**A/N: O.O What's going to happen? Yes, yes, short chapter, but I was drowning more in writer's block with this one than any other chapter I've written. I had already planned all of my chapters up to chapter fourteen before I even posted this story, but I apparently have the incapability how to word things fluently. Please review, like seriously, please… **


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Whee~! Next chapter! I know that a lot of you are thinking 'Finally' with all of my suspense of chapter 13. Well, here it is! I was listening to Korn songs all throughout this chapter (especially **_**Kiss**_**) so it has that type of feel to it. I love Korn. **

**Responses to Reviews:**

**KlonoaDreams: Yes, I have updated (ultimate victory)! Thanks for reviewing this chapter, your welcome for your cookie~! I like Vocaloid, they have good songs, especially the creepy ones. Whenever I'm typing from Kid's POV I usually listen to From the Cradle to the Grave by Kaito, because their dark songs are so awesome~! Thanks again for reviewing.**

**TheOptimisticPessimist: Ah, thank you for the compliment! Yes, I type up everything on Microsoft Word, though I only have the 2003 version XP I think this chapter is one of the fastest I've updated since I wrote it down before hand. Thank you for reviewing!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, damn it, but I wish I did though. The OCs are all mine, no stealing.**

…

Chapter 13:

A Good Kind of Stalker

Crona turned to the nearing soul, wondering what they came to her for, she couldn't think of why they would want to talk to her. It was a boy, closer to a man than a child though, he looked seventeen, but his sloppy appearance made him seem older. The sandy brown hair tangled and unkempt, his clothes were wrinkled and had stains on them, and his eyes had a mischievous glint in them.

"Y-yes?" The swordsman asked.

The boy took a step closer and greeted suspiciously, "Hello…"

The swordsman wanted to step away from him, "Wh-what d-do you want? W-who a-are you?"

The teenager chuckled, "You don't remember me do you?"

Crona shook her head, but he did seem oddly familiar. He leaned in grinning and Crona took a step back as he spoke.

"I remember you though, it's sad that I've been forgotten." He gave an acted pout before he continued to smirk and explain, "Let me freshen you memory, maybe it'll have you remember. My name is Chuck."

Crona's eyes shot up to his, his lustful grin was familiar as she remember him at the cash register she and Maka were at. Chuck took his hand and brushed it against Crona's cheek.

"As for what I want," he began, "I want you to come with me to my place."

Crona's face heated up in temperature, in both blushing and in her anger, and she yanked her face away from his hand. She may not have been wonderfully educated about these type of thing, but she knew to what he was referring to.

"I-I have to go." She mumbled, trying to push past the boy in front of her.

"Oh, no, you don't." he chuckled as he stopped her with his arm blocking her across the chest.

When the swordsman tried to push his arm away, Chuck shoved her into the wall beside them on the right, "If you're not comin' with me, I'll just have to do it here."

'What do I do?' Crona asked through her thoughts, receiving silence as her answer.

Squirming, Crona tried to push him away, failing as he trapped her in a tight grip with his body. Ragnarok wasn't here to help her, nobody was, but Crona attempted to conjure the familiar sword in her hand. Tears started to form in her eyes when she failed to feel the cool handle of her weapon. Chuck put his mouth to the collar of her dress and tore out the buttons with his teeth, the small objects dropping to the ground. The chain of her necklace stood out on her skin, but also blocked Chuck's path, he was about to push it away when a clap of thunder was heard above. Light sprinkles of rain began to fall, but it was nothing, it didn't stop Chuck.

"No," Crona objected heavily, trying to lean away, "Stop."

Chuck pushed away the white fabric and bit into her neck, pulling at the revealed skin, cutting through it enough for the black blood to appear. It dribbled down her neck and plopped onto the ground, the black mixing in with the rain, Crona couldn't activate it with her voice being caught inside of her throat. Chuck began to move the necklace out of the way, but Crona began to squirm even more when he did. Seeing that apparently the small piece of jewelry meant something to her, Chuck began to pull at it, threatening to break it.

Growling lowly, Crona decided on the one thing she could think of to do at the moment, Ragnarok wasn't here, she would rely on her natural abilities at time like these. Lifting her pale blue eyes, she Chuck's smug expression as he kneaded her back.

The swordsman glared at him from behind her lavender bangs with powder blue eyes before she acted, "Chuck…"

He pressed against her, making her wince in disgust, but it made her plan easier, "Yeah?"

Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, Crona let all her force go into her knee, the knee the thrust harshly into area between his legs. She enjoyed the pained look that came across his face and tried to escape in that quick moment, but Chuck recovered, a growl hissing through his teeth. He gripped her shoulder and rammed the swordsman against the brick wall, his legs blocking her from going anywhere. He grabbed a handful of her dress and yanked half of it up, tearing the black fabric up to her knee.

As the pale skin of her leg was revealed, the ripped fabric flapping limply, Crona screamed, "No, STOP!"

The rain above began to pelt down harsher, puddles starting to form on the ground, but the gutters above them blocked minimal of the rain, getting them wet. Crona shrieked and thrashed as Chuck began to un-button his pants, the salty tears that began to slide down her cheeks mixing with the rain. Her screams were mixed with crying and pleads for help in a hopeless attempt to call someone else in the deserted place; Crona felt the other soul she had sensed speed over closer to her direction. Maybe, maybe they would help her, she prayed that they would.

The pounding footsteps grew closer and Chuck swiveled his head to look at the all entrance, waiting for who would appear. Crona's breath caught when she gasped at who had come to save, and her now navy eyes filled with happy tears as her savior came forward.

…

'It isn't stalking, it isn't stalking, it isn't stalking.' He thought, trying to convince himself.

Death the Kid had been following, he wouldn't call it stalking, Crona for the past several hours when he saw her leave her cell. He had been hiding behind the wall he previously had the first day the swordsman came, for an odd reason, when he left his house, he had been compelled to see how Crona was doing. Such a stupid concern! To worry about the Demon Sword, someone who had attempted to kill him and his friends more than once.

'I shouldn't be worrying about her.' He thought, 'No, no! Not her, "it". Why am I thinking this way?'

He had been staying a far distance behind Crona, and apparently she hadn't fully noticed him yet, since it would have been obvious if she did. Death the Kid had been careful to tread his footsteps lightly, even at the distance he always stayed, trailing several meters away, about a street behind where she actually was. He had only been able to follow her this long by using his soul perception for once out of battle, keeping track of where the swordsman was.

Kid had had to wait around Maka's house for a couple of hours waiting, but he had bared it, the whole time he was thinking of how he must be falling into madness, having this much concern for Crona. He didn't question where she went, just making sure nothing happened, but when she entered that ally, Death the Kid was confused, raising an eyebrow.

He didn't follow her in, that would reveal his presence, so he just stayed where he was, waiting for the swordsman to come out. It was a dead-end ally, so he wouldn't lose track of her, that was good.

The shinigami sighed and decided that if Crona didn't come out after ten minutes, he would go in and "coincidentally" find her. Looking to the side, Kid saw a teenager, near adulthood, stare after the spot where Crona disappeared and go into the alleyway as well.

Suspicion took over the shinigami, but he put it aside, pushing it away from his concerns. Crona, even without Ragnarok, being weaker without her black blood activated, should be able to defend herself. Surely Crona would have some aggression to stay away from anything bad happening to her.

After standing for a couple minutes, small drops of water began to fall onto the earth. Leaning his head up to look at the sky, Kid sighed as it began to rain, the droplets sprinkling on his face and sliding down his jaw.

Death's son blinked lazily, 'Rain… wonderful_._'

Kid leaned his weight onto left leg and shook his hair from his eyes, still waiting patiently for the swordsman to come out with that suspicious teenager. The rain seemed to magically pelt down harder, getting Kid wetter than he had wanted wondered what was going on in the alleyway, but he was sure that Crona would be able to handle something as simple as a lone man.

The shinigami's curiosity was answered when he heard the loud screams of, "No, STOP!"

The voice obviously belonged to Crona, the yell of anger mixed with fear, a demand not listened to. Death the Kid bit his lip, perhaps he should go see what was going on?

'It's not your business,' He thought, 'it doesn't concern you. It's not your business, it's not your business-'

"P-lease, no!"

Kid gnawed fiercely on his lip, he was following her to make sure nothing bad happened, why was he dropping out now when something was happening? 'No! I shouldn't have even cared in the first place! She- no, "it" isn't my concern!'

"It's not my business," the began to mutter to himself, gripping the top of his head, "It's not my business, it's not my business, it's not my buis-'

"STOP!" Crona cry was a mixture of pleading and sobbing.

Death the Kid groaned, 'Aw, damn it, it's my business."

He ran, more sprinted, to the entrance of the dark ally, eyes widened at the scene before him. The man he had seen had pinned Crona against the wall, glowering at him. Kid's eyes narrowed when he saw the state that Crona was in, her deep navy eyes wide and filled with tears as they stared at him, her lips trembling. The fabric that normally concealed Crona neck had the buttons torn out and was pushed aside; the swordsman moved her head quickly to hide her neck, but Kid saw the bite mark with blood dripping from the edges of the wound. Half of the bottom of Crona's dress was ripped off to the knee on the right, the torn fabric hanging limply between her legs, exposing her right leg.

The man shoved Crona to the side, causing the tossed girl to fall onto the earth harshly, Kid growled and the older teenager neared the shinigami, "Whaddaya want?"

Kid narrowed his cold yellow eyes and growled, "Leave."

"Heh!" the person snorted and shoved Kid against the shoulder making the shinigami stumbled backwards a step, "You can't tell me nothin'."

Angered, Death the Kid swung his fist forward and punched him across the face, the rain caused the person to slip on the wet dirt, sending the taller teenager onto the floor. The person began to push himself up angrily, but wobbled; then Kid brought his elbow down on the teenager's skull, the connection audible throughout the alley, sending him limp to the ground. He wasn't dead, merely unconscious, it was possible that hungry dogs may get to him, but that wouldn't be Kid's concern.

Turning away from the unconscious man, Death the Kid looked in the direction of Crona, who scooted farther into the shadows, curled into a ball, hand covering her neck while the other gripped the ripped cloth of her dress and tried to hold it against her bare leg. She was obviously cold, the heavy rain wasn't helping either; Kid was concerned and, but when he began to walk toward her, Crona whimpered and moved even farther back into the shadows.

The shinigami kneeled in front of the timid swordsman and held out a hand, causing her to flinch as if waiting for it to strike her. Apparently Crona still had Death the Kid as an image of violence knowing his kindness, Death the Kid felt guilty for his previous actions toward her.

Sighing, the Kid looked down to the rain sodden earth, "Crona-san, I-I promise not to hurt you. Please trust me…"

The swordsman looked up at the boy in front of her, his hard yellow eyes had morphed into a warm honey gold that seemed to melt her insides. The rain made Death the Kid's jet black white-striped hair stick to his forehead, and his clothes were getting soaked by the hard water pounding down, but that seemed like the last thing on the shinigami's mind.

Staring at him, Crona saw Death the Kid's clothes clinging to his body, defining his leanness. Observing his figure in the rain, Crona though that the shinigami was quite… appealing. The swordsman sucked in a breath realizing her unexpected thought, how could she think this way to someone who hated her and possibly wished she was dead?

Biting her lip, Crona hesitantly put the hand that was holding her dress into his, keeping her other at her neck to keep the necklace out of sight. It would raise questions that wouldn't end well, especially with witch-hating Death the Kid, and he hated her already.

Death the Kid's hand wrapped around hers as he pulled Crona up from her ball position, making the girl warm on the inside, forgetting her worrisome thoughts for the moment.

Kid led Crona from the ally onto the sidewalk before realizing what he was doing and letting go of the swordsman's hand, retreating quickly. The shinigami saw the fallen expression on the girl's face and regretted his actions, after what had nearly happened, Crona needed some kindness.

The two walked in silence, Crona keeping a distance as she walked beside the shinigami. When he looked to the side, Death the Kid noticed that Crona was sniffling with tears still in her eyes, the swordsman was shivering as well. She had hand at neck, trying to warm herself with the missing fabric, but she made it seem like she was hiding something; and her leg seemed like it was in pain due to the cold and the rain that was still falling.

Sighing, Death the Kid removed his coat and handed it gently over to Crona; she looked at the coat in confusion, not sure what the shinigami was doing. He grew closer and stood behind her, draping the black garment over her shoulders, causing Crona to look up, eyes wide at the gesture and sudden closeness.

"W-wha-?" she began.

"You were shivering," Kid interrupted, "this will keep _some_ of your body heat together. Besides, the rain is pouring down, with that shredded dress of yours, you need warmth."

The rain was, indeed, pouring, soaking onto a cold Crona and wetting Death the Kid's white shirt, the skin peering through the fabric. Crona looked away from his lean body, where her eyes kept continually going, locking her gaze onto Kid's warm gold eyes instead.

"B-but," she stuttered, "Your dress shirt will g-get ruined by the rain."

Death the Kid gave a small smile, a sight Crona had yet to have seen, "That's my own decision then, isn't it?"

Crona's eyes widened at his kindness, it made her sniff and tears formed in her dark eyes, "T-t-thank… you…"

The swordsman kept her eyes down, not looking at the shinigami beside her, a gray blush on her cheeks, trying to hold her tears back. Death the kid watched the thin sword meister, the water dripping down the lavender locks of her hair. Hesitantly, as to not frighten the timid girl, Kid wrapped an arm around the shivering technician's shoulders, gently pulling her closer.

With the contact of their bodies, Crona burst, swinging her arms around his torso, and began to sob into his shoulder. Death the Kid was startled at the swordsman's forward actions, but didn't object to it.

"T-thank you so much!" she cried, "I-if you hadn't-hadn't of s-saved m-me then… thank you!"

Death the Kid patted the girl on the head awkwardly while she clung onto him, crying and sobbing; the shinigami allowed Crona to weep all of her bound tears, sniffling and murmuring a string of soft 'thank-you's.

Crona eyelids began to droop after a while and her legs became a bit sluggish, the pouring rain freezing her skin. Death's son led the swordsman into Shibusen, when they finally got there after several long minutes going through the darkness, sighing in relief at the absence of falling water. Kid had to half drag the depressed teenager so she wouldn't slump to the floor unconscious, taking the thin swordsman to the nurse. Kid was thankful to Nygus for staying up so late, just lounging in the infirmary, waiting for someone to come in.

Sid's weapon was sitting at her nurse's desk, reading a gun magazine, when the two meisters walked in, Kid more carrying Crona, drenched from the rain outside. Nygus rushed over to the limp girl in the shinigami's arms, taking Crona and leading her over to one of the infirmary beds to rest on.

"Nnngh…" Crona groaned upon being laid onto the mattress.

The swordsman struggled to keep her eyes open as she watched Death the Kid and Nygus speak to each other. Crona massaged her numb cold leg, trying to warm it while listening into their conversation, blushing and trying to go unnoticed with Kid explaining what had happened and both of them throwing glances towards the swordsman.

Once the situation had been explained by Kid, Nygus sighed, "Well, I would recommend that Crona get some rest. She had to warm up too, that rain will give her a cold, though you don't have to worry about that since you're a shinigami. Crona should also stay inside of Shibusen for the next day or so because of possible shack and to let some of the trauma of the incident wear off."

Death the Kid nodded with Nygus' advice and lifted Crona from the bed by grabbing her hand and putting his hand on her the meister's back, leading her out of the room. The two said their farewells to the nurse and walked through the halls in silence, only the sounds of their movement, low breathing, and their wet shoes squeaking against the linoleum floor were audible.

When Crona was able to walk properly, Death the Kid released her and kept a small gap of distance between him and the girl. Crona was silent, pulling Kid's coat tighter around her thin body, savoring the scent that emitted from the fabric.

The two made their way to the doorway of Crona's cell, the Demon Swordsman entering the room and allowing Kid inside. He came in and let Crona shut the door behind him, going to sit on her bed, he saw that the window in her room was letting water drip to the floor. The bed was under the window, but, surprisingly, not wet. Death the Kid pushed the bed out of the water's reach, the metal of the spiked bedpost scraping against the floor.

Sitting down on the mattress, Kid made room for the Demon Swordsman to come, then looked for said swordsman. Crona was curled into her corner, his coat was snuggled onto the girl's body, covering her; her arms were wrapped around her knees, near a panic attack with the shinigami being in her room so calmly.

Death the Kid sighed and went over to Crona, "Come sit on the bed, you're going to get sick."

Crona's skeptical eyes stared up at him, debating whether to trust the boy since he was being suspiciously genuine. The swordsman stood up and walked with the shinigami to the bed, timidly sitting down with him.

Kid studied the swordsman's features as she sat down across from him, her eyes keeping locked on the stone floor. Crona was sitting facing the shinigami, an arm hugged around herself, the other still at her neck; one leg tucked under her thin body with the other hanging over the edge of the bed. The leg that was hanging down was the bare one, the pale skin glowing slick with being wet from the rain and the moonlight shining dimly on it, the shadows of the droplets of rain dancing across her skin.

The shinigami found himself complimenting Crona's exposed limb inside of his mind, then scolded himself through his thoughts.

'You shouldn't be thinking that way!' he yelled through his mind, 'Especially about Crona. I shouldn't be having any romantical interest at all!'

Noticing that Death the Kid was staring at her, Crona squirmed uncomfortably, "Sh-shinigami-san, w-why are y-you looking at me?"

Death's son pulled away from his thoughts, "Ah, I'm sorry."

Gray tinged Crona's cheeks, "I-it's okay."

The shinigami noticed how the swordsman was still shivering, even being inside with his coat around her shoulders. Both of them were wet, which made Kid uncomfortable, but it didn't really bother him since shinigami's couldn't get sick with colds or fevers. Crona could however, and that made him anxious.

"Crona-san, why don't you go take a shower in the locker rooms?" Death the Kid insisted, "The warm water will make you feel better."

The girl looked up at him with her weary blue eyes, "O-okay."

Kid gave a small smile, "You would be able to change out of your dress too. It's very unsymmetrical at the moment, and that's bothering me."

Crona nodded, "Alright."

"Plus," Kid added, "It would give me a chance to change clothes as well."

The swordsman tilted her head, you have a change of clothes here at Shibusen?"

"Ah- yes." The shinigami answered honestly.

The girl merely looked at him briefly before getting up from the bed and walking over to her dresser, pulling out a clean set of clothes to change into after her shower. After Crona took her leave out of the door, Death the Kid got up from the bed and stretched his joints, letting the muscles relax.

He sighed and closed his eyes agitatedly, reopening his cold eyes, Kid grudgingly went over to Crona's sink and yanked the blanket off the mirror to see his father fumbling with being caught in the act of spying. His fist clenching the blue blanket in his hand, Death the Kid started disapprovingly at his father.

Shinigami chuckled nervously, "I see you've found me-!"

"Why?" Kid cut him off.

The elder gave a feigned look of innocence, "I just wanted to see how Crona was doing."

Death the Kid narrowed his eyes, "And that just happened to be when I was accompanying her?"

"Yes!" Shinigami answered, "I also see that you've overcome your hatred toward Crona, has my son finally come to his senses?"

With an irritated blink, Death the Kid said, "Goodbye, Father."

Shinigami started to stumble out excuses as Kid hung the blanket back onto the edges of the mirror, cutting of the elder shinigami's vision. Turning away from the mirror, sensing his father cut off the connections to Crona's cell, Death the Kid put his hands on his waist, shaking his head.

The boy left the cell and made his way into Shibusen's higher floors to retrieve his extra set of dry clothes.

…

Crona was leaning against the tiles of the locker room shower, letting the hot water warm her cold skin, her lavender hair pressed against her forehead and neck. The swordsman's eyes were closed as she just stood in the water, slowly opening them, she turned the knob to make the shower ease its power and shut off.

Merely wiping the water from her skin to dry herself, there were no towels, and shaking out her hair, Crona was dry enough to get in her clothes being only damp now. Slipping on her garments of clothing, Crona looked into the mirror in front of her, noticing her eyes had dark circles under them.

"I need better sleep…" she mumbled quietly.

Stroking the chain of her necklace, Crona was relieved that Kid hadn't seen it, she knew that he would most likely be curious to what it looked like. The Frogg witches were a well-known family, having caused the most destruction next to the Gorgon family, and he would be bound to know what the tadpole meant.

Buttoning up the collar of her dress, Crona adjusted it the way she always did to conceal her meaningful item. Ruffling out some of the lingering droplets of water in her lavender hair, Crona decided to go back to her cell. Crona thought about how Kid was acting toward her as she walked down the halls, her ripped dress in hand.

Wasn't it just yesterday that he still acted like she was a speck of dust floating in the air, a speck of dust he was forced my Maka to help not fall to the ground? Shaking her head Crona sighed, this new life was so confusing, all of these emotions made everything so much more difficult.

Yes, Crona was extremely happy being with Maka, but with the feeling of hate radiating from the shinigami was always uncomfortable. Now he was acting as if they'd just met and happened to save a small girl from the clutches of that teenager, not at all like she was the one who had taken numerous innocent lives.

Shifting the shoes that were being held in her left hand to the arm that was carrying her dress, Crona made her way down the stairs to the catacombs, her bare feet disagreeing with the coldness of the stone. Padding her way to her chamber, Crona looked at the flickering flames of the torches lined down the walls on each side of her.

Reaching the metal door, Crona reached out a hand and opened the door, the hinges let out a creaking whine, and stepped inside. With closing the door and turning, Crona froze upon seeing Death the Kid about to button up his white dress shirt, revealing his pale chest and the lean muscles that went across his abdomen.

Crona's blue eyes stared at his beautifully built body, despite her mind screaming to stop looking, the irresistible urge to be close to him was overpowering. Flutters churned inside of her stomach, but they weren't the remaining snakes the Medusa had planted in her, it was something Crona didn't know, and that made her anxious.

The shinigami looked up, not seeming surprised at all to see the familiar swordsman, his golden eyes looking at her curiously from under his black bangs. Kid looked back down and returned to fastening the first button of his crisp white dress shirt.

Crona cheeks blushed heavily, the gray turning an almost black, "I-I-I'm s-s-sorry, I-I-I'll leave."

Before the swordsman could rush out of the door in her utter embarrassment, Kid stopped her, "No, I won't take much longer."

Having no choice, Crona stood like a statue in the room, trying to avert her eyes from the shinigami in front of her. He was fastening the buttons from the bottom up, having the view of his flawless torso last longer than necessary, increasing Crona's torture. When he was finally done, not bothering to put on his other black coat, merely hooking it onto one of the metal spikes on the post of her bed, the shinigami turned to her.

"I'm not a dinosaur, I can see you even if you stand completely still."

The swordsman jumped out of her stillness, "S-sorry."

Death the Kid looked up to the window in her cell and saw a crack of lightning in the distance, thunder followed ten seconds after, making him sigh as the rain seemed to still pour as heavily as it had when he and Crona were walking down the streets soaked in the water.

"It appears that I won't be able to get home in his weather." The shinigami told the swordsman, who was setting her torn dress on top of her dresser, "Do you mind if I stay here?"

The swordsman jumped so violently at this question that the dresser nearly toppled over from the sudden action, wide blue eyes looked at him in shock.

"S-sure…" she answered quietly.

Kid gave a small grin, "Thanks."

Crona clenched her eyes shut as the shinigami sat on her bed, gritting her teeth, 'He's going to kill me, isn't he? Alone here, with no one else nearby closer than two floors up. He'll make it seem like someone came to murder me and act innocent.'

"Crona-san?"

Unwillingly, the swordsman turned hesitantly to the shinigami that was sitting calmly on her bed. He was staring at her harmlessly with his honey-like eyes, leaned back onto his arms, the top button of his shirt undone and flared out for space at his throat.

The swordsman bit her lip as she tore her eyes away from the smooth pale skin of his neck, "Y-yes, sh-shinigami-san?"

The gunman blinked, "You can call me by Kid, there's no need for the high label."

Cringing slightly at the familiarity the shinigami was using, Crona responded, "Yes… Kid-kun."

The depressive teenager was confused when the shinigami seemed to glow when she said his name; it made her stomach knot up with an emotion she couldn't name.

"I was wondering why you were standing there," the shinigami explained, "it seemed like something was wrong."

"M-mn, n-no, y-you don't need to w-worry about me." Crona replied.

Death the Kid gave a mental sigh and thought, 'It seems it's too late for that.'

The swordsman didn't notice the boy's expression and made her way over to the corner of the room, going to slump in it and try not to think of Death the Kid coming over to kill her, but once she slid down into her spot, she saw the shinigami walk over in her direction.

Panicking, Crona watched him, he stopped in front of her and sighed. The shinigami leaned over and grabbed Crona's arm, pulling the swordsman up from her position, and dragged her to the other side of the room.

"W-wha…?"

"When you sit in one corner it makes it asymmetrical, the only way for that not to happen is for me to sit in the other one, but I don't want to. Besides Nygus said to rest and stay warm, you'd probably sleep better in the bed and I'm sure that it isn't wonderfully heated over there." Kid explained.

Crona was placed onto the mattress of her bed and Death the Kid sat next to her, keeping a couple centimeters away from her.

The swordsman saw the shinigami tense up, "Ah, Crona-san?"

Said girl looked over to him with her navy blue eyes, "Yes, Kid-kun?"

Death the Kid rubbed the back of his neck, "I… wish to apologize… for my actions when you came here."

Crona was taken aback by the sudden apology, "Y-you already said you were s-sorry, i-it's okay."

"No," he replied, "Truly, I want to be sincere when I apologize this time."

The swordsman's features softened into a thoughtful expression as she stared at the boy beside hang his head in shame. Was he really accepting her? His golden eyes looked up her blue ones, regretting what he had done.

"I… am sorry, Crona-san…" the shinigami said, "I hope that… you can accept my apology."

Death the Kid was expecting a rejection from the girl beside him, but raised his head in surprise when he heard a soft, "Of course…"

Crona was fiddling with the black fabric at her knees, not looking into his eyes, gnawing on her lip, "I accept your apology."

The shinigami gave a small smile in her direction and straightened up, "Thank you. I suppose that we should both be getting some sleep, it has to be around eleven-thirty."

Getting a nod in reply form the swordsman, Death the Kid rose from the bed and gestured to it, "I'm not going to let you sleep in the corner."

Feeling defeated in having to do what the shinigami said, Crona laid onto the mattress and looked up at the shinigami in a way that told him 'there, happy?'. Kid chuckled at Crona obedience and saw the swordsman blush, he walked over to the mirror and retrieved the blue blanket, going back over to her and lying in on top of the girl's body.

"Wait, but t-the mirror." Crona began, uneasy about why she put the blanket there in the first place.

Seeing Kid hanging his black coat over it instead, Crona let out a breath in release, he turned to her, "Does that release your anxiety?"

With an embarrassed nod, shifted in the blanket, thinking that maybe the shinigami would leave and stay in one of the other cells if he couldn't go home. Her hopes were crushed when she saw Death's son near over to her and sit on the edge of the bed, stretching his arms.

Grinding her teeth together Crona turned her back to him, not wanting to look at him in fear that something bad would happen. Crona's breath caught when she heard him shift, though, her heart came to a complete stop when the boy began to lay down next to her, sliding under the blanket as well. Crona didn't dare move, and was screaming through her mind that he was bound to kill her, panic and fear were the two emotions she was feeling the most at the moment.

The swordsman was also trying not to think about how pleasantly warm he was, his back was pressing against hers, sharing his body heat. Crona tried to calm down but couldn't slow her frantic heart, so she tried to keep her breathing in harmony with the movement of Death the Kid's.

She found herself slowing down her panic as she kept in tune with Kid's inhaling, keeping pace as his breaths became slower and softer. Finally, once he was asleep, Crona was fully calm by copying his breathing, and her tense body relaxed.

The girl began to close her eyes, the heat of the shinigami's body comforted her in a way, and the bed was comfortable with Death the Kid in it, the softness of the mattress and him together. As her dark navy eyes began to droop, the shinigami shifted and turned over, unconsciously wrapping his arm around Crona's torso and snuggling her closer.

Crona's breathing sucked in and she felt extremely awkward in this new position, but when she recovered from the suddenness, the swordsman sighed contently. She had an urge to face him and curl herself into his chest, but that was too much, this was already testing luck.

Smiling happily when the shinigami's arms pulled her in tighter, Crona let her drowsiness win over her eyes and feel asleep in the comfort of Death the Kid's arms.

…

Death the Kid was thinking about the last hour or so before he drifted off into slumber, Crona's sad blue eyes looking at him with hope made him want to hold her. He was lying back to back with the girl, and he savored at how her thin body was soft and warm, but stiff in awkwardness.

The shinigami didn't know how this happened; he had still hated the swordsman just six hours ago, yet here he was, sleeping next to her happily. It was possibly one of his traits as a shinigami, mating is something that happens in the soul, and no matter how much you would love to kill them, the feeling of affection will soon come.

As Kid began to feel even more content in his position, it appeared that Crona was as well, slowly relaxing her tenseness. It would make Kid explode with joy if she felt the same way to him, but it was probably not likely that swordsman would have a relationship with him even after he had apologized for his reaction to her at first.

The way Crona spoke his name made the shinigami's emotions raise, her soft and timid voice was melodic even in her dark nature.

When the swordsman was fully relaxed and Kid could feel her start to drift off, he naturally turned over and curled his arm around her, pulling Crona into his body. Ignoring the girl immediately stop breathing, Kid fell into his ecstasy of feeling the softness of her in his arms. Pulling her in tighter, the boy let himself go to sleep.

…

Eruka was climbing up the slick outside wall of Shibusen to the window that lead into Crona's cell room. Upon reaching the windowsill, Eruka huffed a breath at the effort, squirming in through the cold metal bars that stripped Crona's window.

The frog witch looked into the corner expecting to see Crona, but was surprised when she found it empty, hearing a faint noise, Eruka looked to the other side of the room to find the swordsman sleeping in the bed with another. Suspicious, the frog witch carefully slid down the stone wall onto the floor, since was no bed to land on below the window because it was moved over to the side.

Hopping over to the large piece of furniture, Eruka went to the side Crona was facing, if she was awake, then maybe she would explain why a teenage boy was sleeping next to her. Death the Kid, too, out of all of them; the bastard that had treated the girl so horribly.

Eruka glanced up at Crona's face and saw that the swordsman's features seemed troubled. Her eyebrows her furrowed together in a worry and her eyes kept squeezing tighter together in imaginary pain, the hand at her chest was clenched tight into a fist, and she was trembling lightly.

Narrowing her coal black eyes, Eruka wondered if Crona was having a nightmare, it wouldn't be odd, but the frog witch was concerned all the same. Taking a last glance at the swordsman, and throwing a glare toward the suspicious shinigami, the frog witch took her leave out the window.

…

**Tuliharja: Couldn't respond to your review at the beginning because it would spoil. Whenever you guess what's going to happen in the next chapter, your always right (T.T) it makes me sad that my story is **_**that**_** predictable. Thank you for reviewing!**

**A/N: Doo-doo-doo~! Chapter is done, first touchy emotion moment between Kid and Crona, yay~! Please review, please, please, please! If you do I'll throw in another scene of Kid shirtless, ok maybe I'll do that anyways, but pleeeaaaseee!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Twirl, twirl, twirl. The longest reviews I have ever had to an of my other chapters! Thank you! I is re-watching Higurashi series (evil grin), fellow Higurashi watchers, we all know how wonderfully violent and dark my thoughts are going to be. But no worries! I shall not put my emo writing in my story, well, much. I spare you the twisted violence though. This is going to be a short chapter (and a long author's note with my responses), just some details of what happened more into the night with our fluffy couple. **

**Responses to Reviews:**

**KlonoaDreams: Yes, spare the small child from fan girl squeals. But some other dark Vocaloid songs are From the Cradle to the Grave by Kaito, Trick and Treat from Len and Rin, Red River in the Woods by Miku, Dark Wood Circus by Miku, Red Swamp Bottom by Miku, Wide Knowledge of the Late Madness my Miku, Alice Human Sacrifice (Meiko, Kaito, Miku, Rin, Len). Um… that's all I can think of for creepy ones. I know you probably don't care, but, there are my examples! =3**

**Pollardy: Heh, I'll try to throw in some happy fluff. And violence, I love~ violence. Lets see where my demented mind will take this story.**

**PrimitiveRadioGoddess: Thanks for reviewing! What cartoons are you looking up? Just curious. =3**

**Purple-Eyed Devil: Eh-heh-heh, yeah, sorry I dragged it out so long. But I wanted to make the general plot to unfold as the slow emotions came in. I apologize for the long wait for romance. **

**Aisha: I'm glad you like my story! More mushy moments are to come!**

**UnjustToMe: No, do not hyperventilate! I does not want you to pass out D= =3 Thank you for liking my chapter!**

**Tuliharja: Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad my story isn't THAT predictable, and thank you for all of your compliments. I just felt the urge to throw in a giggle with Shinigami-sama, it was too funny to resist.**

**Sulfur Angel: Yeah, I should probably read the series. But, hey, I'm a thirteen year old that like to stay at the computer all day, type fan fictions, and watch anime. I read a lot, but only a few Stephen King books have I come to love (****The Shining**** being my absolute favorite). As for your ultimate science/math skills, yeah, bit too young for that type of hurt to my brain. I've never liked science (and never will), so high school is bound to be hell from the looks of it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, but the OCs are still mine. =P**

…

Chapter 14:

In the Middle of the Night

"_Sakura no hana wa, itsu hiraku._

_Yama no osato ni, itsu hiraku…"_

_Slowly opening her dark navy eyes, Crona looked up to the gray sky above her. Swirling rain clouds threatened to pour their tears onto the ground where she lay. The swordsman was lying in an all too horribly familiar place, the long swaying green grass engulfing her body in a cushion of vegetation and earth._

_Crona glared up at the sky, already feeling the grass unnaturally die and wilt around her, turning a dull pale yellow to fit with the rest of the faded colors around her. Sitting up, Crona looked around at the thorn filled trees, listening to the cold wind as it brushed through her hair, letting the lavender locks dance gracefully around the swordsman's face._

"_Sakura no hana wa, itsu niou._

_Warau nano noko asobo koro…"_

_The gentle voice that belonged to Crona filled the otherwise quiet air, a calm soothing melody that rang out. Tilting her head up, Crona saw her replica lying across the top of the large pale gray wall, the wall that still had splatters of blood crusted on it. The replica her arms resting across her chest while her legs sung lazily on both sides of the wall._

"_Sakura no hana wa, itsu odoro._

_Utau nana noko nemuru koro…"_

_The replica was singing softly, reaching Crona's ears, the familiar voice haunting as it spoke the mournful song. The swordsman brushed some of the soil off from her dress and, with the wind softly blowing, moved some strands of hair away from her face. Recognizing the beautiful song immediately, the lyrics began to form in the depressed teenager's mind._

"_Sakura no hana wa, itsu kuchiru…" the replica sang._

"_Shinda nana noko, nonoru koro." Crona finished, singing the ending line quietly._

_The replica's powdery eyes looked down to the swordsman below her, sitting up from the edge of the wall and putting an elbow on her knee, leaning on her fist, "Hello."_

_Crona's dark navy eyes locked onto her past replica as she stood up from the ground and returned grimly, "Hello…Crona."_

_The swordsman felt odd referring to the past replica by their name, but the replica had put on look of hurt across her face, "No honorifics?"_

_Crona glared up at her, "No, why should I?"_

"_Why don't you come sit up here like last time?" the past swordsman asked._

_Sliding her blue eyes down to her arms as she brushed more dirt from them, Crona responded, "I don't really feel like climbing a tree full of thorns right now."_

"_Then why don't you get rid of them?"_

_Crona's eyes shot up to the other swordsman, "What do you mean?"_

_The other Crona's powdery eyes blinked childishly, "Well it is your dream, it's mine as well, but you can just wish away those thorns."_

_Suspiciously removing her gaze from the other swordsman, who was watching below intently, Crona glanced at the tree she had climbed before in her last dream. The thorns faded away into nothingness, leaving the tree bare of anything harmful and safe to climb up._

_Warily, Crona neared the tree and brushed a testing hand over it's bark, feeling the rugged wood under the palm of her hand. Narrowing her eyes, Crona glanced back up to her past replica and back to the tree, finally hooking her hand onto one of the branches and making her way up._

_Facing her replica now, by reaching the top branch as she did before, Crona stared into the pale eyes of herself with her own set navy. The replica gave a childlike smile and swung both of her legs over to the same side of the wall facing Crona, a dark look of curiosity over her face._

"_Hmm, Crona, you look upset." The replica stated with wide pale eyes and feigned innocence._

_Crona's deep blue eyes were narrowed threateningly, the navy color getting paler into insanity at the second, "I'm not ecstatic at the moment. I see you're not using honorifics, either."_

_The replica gave an amused chuckle, "We are of the same soul, merely of different time frames. Besides, you use it as an insult, whereas, I use it terms of familiarity."_

_Crona glared suspiciously at the strange swordsman in front of her, she was sure she never spoke that formally while living with Medusa, there was never any formal occasions to use that type of vocabulary. _

"_I suppose." Crona replied._

_The replica smiled cheerfully, "I'm glad we've resolved that, Crona." The replica's pale powder blue eyes looked up absentmindedly toward the gray sky, tilting a head to the side, the lavender locks brushing her cheeks, "Though, I think that calling each other by the same name will be confusing."_

_Getting a nod from Crona, the other Crona gave another small smile, which made Crona even more suspicious. She never smiled as often as this other Crona did, not even now, with friends, did she._

_The replica raised a finger to the air and put a tilt to her head in playfulness, "I'll call you by 'Present Crona' and you call me by 'Past Crona', how will that work out?"_

_Present Crona gave an agreeing nod, eyes still locked seriously on Past Crona in front of her, "Sure."_

_With a caringly cruel look, similar to the mocking expression that Medusa gave in scoffing amusement, Past Crona spoke, "You seemed really happy before you fell asleep."_

'_How…?' Present Crona thought._

"_Do you think this is _only_ a dream?" Past Crona asked with shocked wide eyes, "I'm your mind as well, if this were _just_ a dream, I wouldn't be able to change your way of thought how I do."_

"_Y-you… can hear my thoughts too?" Present Crona more stated than asked._

_With a smug smirk, Past Crona answered, "How would I have responded to your mind spoken question if I couldn't? If I am a past you, therefore being inside of your mind and memories, wouldn't it be reasonable for me to know your thoughts?" _

_Present Crona set her deep navy eyes to the blood splattered across the pale gray wall, "Yes, I was… content."_

_Past Crona chuckled happily, "Content. An under exaggeration much? Your heart was flying in "content", you seem to be taking a liking in the shinigami."_

_A small gray blush tinged Present Crona's cheeks, but regained her stiff and serious demeanor, "I have taken a liking to Kid-kun, but why is it 'you' and not 'we'?"_

_The other girl raised an eyebrow, "Simple, I'm of your past, you had close to no heart felt emotions then. The feelings you have toward Shinigami's son do not affect me."_

"_Mmn." Present Crona mumbled._

_Past Crona sighed, "I don't see why you like that boy, he was so cruel to you."_

_Present Crona had a smile playing at her lips, "W-well, h-he's nice, and apologized to me. A-and, w-when he touches me, I know how to deal with it more than with anyone else."_

"_Ah," Past Crona breathed, "That seems sweet. But… what if he's lying?"_

_The present swordsman pressed the tips of her two index fingers together, "T-to be honest, n-no matter how weird it seems, I-I don't t-think I would mind very much."_

"_Hmph," Past Crona snorted, "That bastard is supposed to be our enemy, both of ours! Past and Present! He's right there next to you, every chance in the world to kill him!"_

_The past swordsman grinned, "No one would suspect you either. Medusa would have been proud of you, and isn't that what you always craved? Medusa's approval?"_

_Present Crona grinded her teeth, "I don't care. Lady Medusa is dead and I have friends, Kid-kun is accepting me, and I wouldn't want anything more!"_

"_He probably still hates you," Past Crona hissed with a smile on her lips, her sharp powder blue eyes glinting, "He's probably been lying to you the last few hours, finally deciding to kill you."_

"_Stop it!" Present Crona shrieked, gripping the edges of her head. This treatment… was so similar… to Medusa's._

"_Hmn," Past Crona hummed airily, "Lies. You've always hated them. So why are you falling into Death the Kid's trap? Do you want to die? He could be waiting to kill you even right now."_

_Present Crona clenched her hands into fists at her knees, trembling and furrowing her eyebrows, eyes shut and tears swimming in her eyelashes, "E-even so… I wouldn't care. I-I would at least die after having met all of my friends and finally, even if it was fake! Having Death the Kid-san show me affection!"_

"_Such confidence." Past Crona said, "You seem to like this boy very much."_

_Present Crona's cheeks burned a dark gray, "Yes."_

"_Perhaps, maybe… it's love?"_

_Present Crona grinded her teeth together and growled lowly, "No…it…it can't…be…" _

_Leaning her weight onto her arms, Past Crona smiled, "Even with death staring you in the face… you cherish his affection."_

_Present Crona trembled in anger and embarrassment, "Yes."_

"_He could kill you." Past Crona stated, "You know that, but you don't care..,"_

_Present Crona remained silent, eyes in shadow by her lavender bangs, head hanging to look at her knees, fist clenched angrily. _

"_No, you don't care." Past Crona continued, leaning in toward the Present, to whisper in her ear, "Because he's holding you in his arms… love is a damned emotion that only takes advantage of people."_

Tears were silently rolling down Crona's cheeks as her deep navy eyes opened to see the dark gray stones of the wall that, again, reminded her of her dream. Clutching at her neck, holding the cold metal of Lily's necklace in her palm, Crona sobbed, her body heaving with the large gasps of air she was taking in.

The arm that was holding her around her torso tightened then loosened with Death the Kid waking up to her violent trembling; his warm gold eyes blinked sleepily before comprehending that the girl beside him was crying. Kid took her shoulder and moved her to where he could see her face, the tears that were running from her chin down her neck to where her hand was; she shuddered at his moving of her, but continued to sob.

"Crona-san!" The shinigami called to her anxiously, brushing the hair away from her sweating temples, "Crona-san, what's wrong?"

The swordsman moved her hand from her neck slowly then, suddenly, she flung himself into his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck, burying herself into him. Kid was taken aback at the action, since Crona never moved first with her timidness, but hesitantly hugged Crona around her waist.

Her heaving shoulders slowed as her sobs started to lessen, but Crona tightened her grip around the shinigami, pulling her body closer to his in comfort. Kid held her close, forehead resting against the cushion of her lavender hair, asking lowly in a murmur what was wrong.

"I-I'm sorry." The swordsman apologized, "I-it was just a-a stupid nightmare."

Death the Kid lifted his head from Crona's hair and said, "It obviously wasn't stupid if you're crying."

Sniffling, Crona tried to pull away from the shinigami's arms, "N-no, you don't need to worry about me. I-I shouldn't even be bothering y-you and w-waking you up."

The shinigami tightened his grip on the girl, hands staying protectively around her, "I want to worry about you now. I want to make you feel better and feel safe."

Crona looked up with her dark blue eyes wide, "R-really?"

With a smile, Death the Kid nodded.

New tears, of happiness, filled Crona's eyes, "I… don't know h-how to deal… w-with having someone w-worried about me."

"Well, then," Death the Kid began, brushing his knuckle along her cheek, wiping away some of her tears, "I suppose you're going to have to learn how to deal with it."

Crona blinked, frozen, at the shinigami's response, the warmth in his voice and golden eyes. She slowly shortened the distance of their bodies by tightening her arms around his neck, resting her head in the crook of his neck, the cool skin against her hot forehead. The button that was undone at the top gave Crona more to savor in being close to him, taking in the scent of soap from the shinigami.

Outside, the sky was dark, the time unknown, but still very late, with several stars thrown across the black pitch, the moon grinning down onto the city. The blood was absent from his teeth tonight, no one was killed today, that was comforting. Crona sighed happily into the skin of Death the Kid's throat, enjoying how he still hadn't let go of her, and slowly falling back into slumber in her position.

The shinigami was just as content, he was marveling at how soft her body was with being so thin. Kid's thoughts were filled with hope that, since she seemed extremely comfortable with being in close contact with him, Crona would possibly have some of the same feelings he did.

Death the Kid smiled as he felt Crona's grip loosen on him and her breathing slow, he could feel her still trying to hang on to him, even in her drowsiness. He laid her back onto the mattress and her navy eyes were already closed, but she kept her hold on him loosely. Kid got the message Crona was telling him silently and didn't let go as he lay back down as well.

The swordsman let out a happy hum and curled into his chest like a kitten. Death the Kid rubbed her back, feeling her spine through the thin fabric of her dress, grinning mentally to the absence of her annoying weapon. Surely if he hadn't given Ragnarok the sedate, the shinigami would be nowhere close to where he was now, since with the weapon, Crona wouldn't have been in the danger she was in.

….

**A/N: Didn't I say it was going to be short? Anyways, I just couldn't seem to fit it in gracefully with my next chapter at the beginning. Please review~! Please. Unless you don't want Kid and Crona's relationship to go anywhere. Hee-hee-hee, threats. But no, seriously, please review.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Yay, another chapter! I've been trying to still keep up on my anime, I want to watch as many violent ones as possible (give examples in reviews, please?). I found one called ****School Days ****and the first two episodes are romance crap, but I was bad and spoiled the ending for myself (I must say, that the ending was beautiful, well the one I saw anyways).**

**O.K. I know I don't really complain much (nvr mind, scratch that, I do.), but I'm going to rant. Skip over it.**

**[start/rant]**

**I'm trying to whip chapters out as fast as I can (but not to where I do a cheesy job and feel like a loser) because of school inching closer. It's exactly 19 days away, counting weekends, before my endless typing of my fan fiction comes to an end. I seriously don't know when I'll find spare time to type since I always type them up alone. Parents forbid me from using curse words (You know my disobedience from reading the story), I don't use them in conversation, only in my stories. And they hate it (like seriously, they will remain silent for an entire five minutes) when I refer to ANYTHING sexual. Whether it be a mix colored flower or anything. You get my drift, doing this fan fiction will be hard. I get no alone time whatsoever. **

**[end/rant]**

**Apologies for the rant, even though 90% of you jumped it into the chapter. Don't think I don't know.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, but the OCs are mine. And I forgot last chapter (I'm forgetful) the song 'Past Crona' was singing was the ****Sakura Song**** from the anime ****Jigoku Shoujo****. I don't own either of those either.**

…

Chapter 15:

The Character of Love

Sunlight filtered in through the bars of Crona's cell window, laying a soft blanket of yellow over the two teenagers in the bed. Death the Kid furrowed his eyebrows as he began to wake up, opening his golden eyes and wondering where he was. Then yesterday made its way back into his memory and he blinked, looking down to the thin girl in his arms, snuggled against his chest.

A smile found a way onto his face as the shinigami admired how the sunlight made Crona's pale skin glow, the lavender of her hair swept over her angelic like face, eyes still close in peace. Kid stared intently at the swordsman, knowing that he wouldn't be able to once she awake, her self-consciousness would make her uncomfortable.

Crona was perfectly symmetrical, in every way, except for her hair, and the small buttons that were undone at the top of her neck. Furrowing his eyebrows, Death the Kid moved one of his hands from her waist and brushed her hair with his trained fingers, adjusting the locks into symmetry, trying to be careful not to disturb the arms still locked around his neck.

The movements caused the swordsman to stir, a small yawn escaping her lips as her blue eyes opened to see the boy in front of her. Her eyes widened, like Kid, not remembering, but calmed down once she realized that nothing bad was going on.

Death the Kid smiled to the girl and gave a soft chuckle when her cheeks tinged a light gray. She blinked her navy eyes a few times before loosening her grip around the shinigami's neck and slowly raising into a sitting position.

Rubbing her eyes, Crona mumbled, "I… think, that… was the best I've slept… since… ever."

The shinigami stroked his fingers through her soft hair, "I'm glad then."

Death the Kid looked at the hand clock on Crona's dresser, it read eight twenty-four in the morning, "Ah, it's a good think it's Saturday."

"Mmn," Crona agreed.

"Though, I suppose I should get going." Death the Kid said, "Liz and Patty are bound to be wondering where I am, no doubt there are going to be questions. It'll be hard what to tell them."

The swordsman looked over to the shinigami, her dark eyes more alert now, "There's always the truth."

Death the Kid grinned, "It was kind of the last thing on my mind to tell them the truth."

Getting a small giggle from the swordsman lifted the shinigami's spirits, he continued, "Though I suppose it would be easier to tell them what happened."

"I won't have to be there when you explain though, right?" Crona asked.

The shinigami laughed, but then realized the girl was serious, a worried look over her face, "No, don't worry, you won't have to be there."

Crona twisted the blue blankets in her fist, "Okay… I-it would have been… uncomfortable for me."

Kid let a thoughtful smile come over his face, "I'll make sure to only tell Liz, if she lets it out, it will be a regret of hers. Is that okay?"

"A-alright, Kid-kun." The swordsman answered.

"Though," he said, thinking, "I could stay here for a while more. Nygus said that you should stay in your room for a day, and it's bound to be lonely."

Crona blushed and poked her to fingers together, "Y-yeah."

Death the Kid got up from the bed and stretched out his arms, "Besides, I would be able to fix your dress, I have a sewing needle and some thread somewhere in this school."

The swordsman tilted her head, "You know how to sew?"

"Yes," Kid answered, "What if my suit got torn while on a mission? It was necessary."

"Okay." Crona replied.

The shinigami told Crona to change into her ripped dress while he went and looked for his needle and thread, with a nod from the swordsman, Death the Kid dashed from the room in search for his materials. Crona obeyed his orders and went to get the dress that was still resting atop her dresser, looking at the large gash in the black fabric at the leg.

Sighing, Crona took off the one she was wearing and slipped on the ripped, feeling uncomfortable at the vulnerable skin. She looked down to the neck, since the buttons were torn out, Lily's necklace was glinting obviously on the pale skin of her neck.

Knowing that Kid would most likely fix the buttons too, Crona unwillingly unhooked the chain from around her neck and stuffed it next to Medusa's journal in her dresser drawer. The swordsman went to sit on the bed, feeling awkward with the unfamiliar feel of air against her exposed skin.

A couple of minutes later of waiting in the painful silence, Death the Kid's voice was heard on the other side of her steel door.

"Crona-san?" he asked, "Is it alright for me to come in?"

"Yes." She answered.

The shinigami entered with a small box that contained four black buttons (her dress originally had five buttons at the neck, but apparently five wasn't an evenly split number), a lot of black thread, and a sleek needle. Kid sat on the mattress next to Crona, who scooted over to make room for him.

"Okay," he began to instruct, "Hold out your leg, please."

The swordsman obediently gave her exposed limb to the shinigami, watching as he stuck the thin thread through the hole of the sharp stick of metal. She gulped internally, Crona wasn't a big fan of needles, especially living with Medusa, needles weren't going to be your friend. No matter how used to the pricks she was, Crona didn't like them very much and their menacing little spikes.

Death the Kid had Crona's led perched on his lap, the black fabric of her dress that was torn was moved to the side so that he could properly sew it. Of course, because of this position, he felt extremely uncomfortable, even if Crona didn't seem to have a big problem with it. He wasn't thinking the purest of thoughts, mating did that to one's mind, but Crona, who thought more innocently, didn't know the reason to his inner stress.

After he had the needle and thread ready, Kid gripped the torn fabric of Crona's dress at the knee and began to weave the edges together, the stitches invisible with his precision. His hand would brush against Crona's skin every so often, and the both of them would tense up noticeably, but neither of them said a word as the shinigami worked for his perfection.

As Death the Kid finally neared her mid-calf, where the dress ended, the shinigami started to beam, but still remained at a steady pace of his weaving. Finally pulling the thread one more time, Death the Kid broke the string by thrusting it upward, the bottom of Crona's dress fixed.

"There," he beamed, "Now I just have to fix the buttons on your neck."

Crona nodded and the shinigami neared her easily with the four small black buttons in his palm, pulling the white fabric. The swordsman stretched her neck up to allow Kid to not accidentally prick her. The shinigami let his hands gracefully weave the buttons into the white fabric, though uncomfortable at the closeness he was at.

In order to do this properly, the boy had positioned himself to where his legs were on either side of Crona's waist, trying not to touch her too much if she were to be uncomfortable, and he was leaning in toward her chest to get to her neck. His breath tickled the skin of her throat and her own breathing stopped, freezing into an unmoving statue.

Cheeks heating into a crimson blush, Death the Kid continued to sew the buttons back onto her collar, finished with the first two and only needing the last of the four.

"You can put your neck down Crona-san." He told her, "I just need the last two now."

The girl lowered her neck and saw the shinigami began on the third button, her face felt very hot at the closeness, with the boy's face no more than a couple of centimeters away.

When, finally after the long seconds of torture, Death the Kid backed away from Crona, sitting on the opposite of the bed. The swordsman fastened the newly sewn on buttons and smiled, relieved by the space between them now.

"Th-thank you, Kid-kun."

Said shinigami grinned back in response, "There's no need to thank me, the asymmetry would eventually annoy me to no end, so I suppose I did it for my own benefit."

Crona blushed lightly, "Even so, thank you."

"Your welcome," he answered, "We should probably get something to eat."

The swordsman blinked, "Why?"

Death the Kid raised an eyebrow, "Because, one, I always get something when I wake up. Two, you're awfully thin and need to get into the habit of eating more."

"Oh. I'm sorry…" Crona apologized.

"For what?"

"For asking the question," Crona answered, "And being too thin."

Death the Kid was officially confused. He knew that the swordsman was timid, that was obvious, but he didn't know that she was sensitive for apologizing. It was like Tsubaki, saying sorry when it wasn't their fault in the slightest.

He replied before the unnecessary guilt brought Crona down, "N-no, Crona-san, it's not your fault. It was just your curiosity, and it's Medusa's fault for you being so thin."

The swordsman said nothing, playing with her fingers. Death the Kid mentally sighed, there was still a bit more to know about the girl before he got too forward. The boy scooted a bit closer to her, seeing that she would tense up when he got too close, even after being so close that night, and hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder.

She froze at his touch, but said nothing, and the shinigami spoke, "I would like it if you came with me. Besides, Ragnarok won't be there to steal your food, isn't that a small plus?"

"Y-yeah, I-I guess." Crona answered.

Death the Kid smiled, "Come on, if you want we'll break the rules and go visit Maka."

This got a small giggle from the swordsman and Crona agreed to come with him to get something from the staff empty lunchroom. They walked through the halls, the corridors deserted from any other people being the weekend, and made their way to the cafeteria.

…

Maka was wiping down the counters of her kitchen with a damp cloth when Soul plopped onto their living room couch to watch TV. He turned it on with a click from the remote and watched as the news appeared on his screen, deciding to watch it, if only for a moment, to see if anything interesting was going on.

The scythe meister listened to the voice of the reporter in the back ground as she scrubbed at a stain that was most likely where she put her coffee cup and forgot to clean it. The reporter was talking calmly about how the weather was cold, as it obviously is in winter, and how it may snow next week, so turn up your heaters.

"… _and now let's head to Mark to tell us about the news of the city. Mark, your up."_

"_Ah, thank you, Jared. I'd like to announce that where I'm standing is the area where the infamous 'Kishin' revived. The area is still in ruins, but it seems to be now, a hangout for gang groups. Today, our policemen found that a dead body to be found in one of the alleyways of Giraffe Street. He seems to have been mugged, by the looks of his clothes being pulled out in various areas, and shot. The wounds were located on his left shoulder and through the forehead._

"_I'm sure that he regretted dying on such an embarrassing name as Giraffe Street, eh, Mark?"_

"_Yes, Jared. So we inform you other citizens to be on your lookout… now to the pollen rates with Jennifer…"_

"_Thanks, Mark… today the pollen percentage is at…"_

Soul flipped off the news in search of something more interesting, "That went the only interesting fact of the day."

"The death?" Maka asked, "I suppose it differs from the regular news. Gangs aren't usually the cause of deaths around here."

The scythe snorted, "Yeah, because Death City has the honor of having homicidal non-human monsters committing crimes. I'm sure we could take 'em, that stupid gang, one on one."

Maka rolled her eyes, "Okay, Soul."

"Hey," he replied, "if I took those dudes out, my cool status would be higher."

The blonde shook her head, "I don't think it'd change anything."

The white haired boy grinned, "Of course it would! Girls would just be squealing if I saved one of them. 'Soul, Soul! Be our boyfriend!'"

"You sound just like Black*Star." Maka stated.

Soul rested his hands behind his head, "Aw, your just jealous."

Maka through the damp rag at him, the piece of cloth smacking against his face.

Soul removed it and frowned, "Not cool, Maka."

The blonde just shrugged and walked off, "I'm okay with not being cool."

Soul's crimson eyes followed as she calmly went off to her room and jumped off the couch when she opened the door, "Alright, I apologize! You're always so grumpy when you're serious like that."

His meister turned to him with a grin, "Apology accepted!"

She went into her room and shut the door while Soul groaned. Once she went in, he couldn't get her out, and now there was no one to talk to, to get rid of his boredom. There was Blair, naw, that would end badly with a large hardcover _War and Peace_ in his head.

The scythe trudged off, he could go visit Black*Star. He wanted a rematch on that staring contest again, he didn't know that the boy could stay still for that long!

…

Crona was handed an apple from the shinigami in front of her, the gleaming red fruit sitting in the palm of her hand. The swordsman eyes it carefully almost as if she was suspicious it was poisoned, at which Death the Kid sighed and assured the swordsman that he was not, in fact, trying to kill her.

Once the swordsman trusted she wouldn't die from eating the apple, Crona bit into it, her stomach rumbling in pleasure at its emptiness being filled. Death the Kid bit into his own, but watched as Crona's face lit up as she enjoyed the sweetness of her own fruit.

The shinigami barely noticed that Crona was nibbling around the core of the apple, finished, while he had barely taken a few bites, caught up in watching her. The swordsman noticed him staring, which she found seemed to be more frequent than before when he merely glance at her in hatred, and blushed, averting her eyes.

"A-am I d-doing something w-wrong?" she asked, her blue eyes trying to look other places than Death the Kid.

Kid forced himself away from his staring and shook his head, "I'm sorry, Crona-san. I guess I kind of blanked out and didn't realize I was staring."

"Oh… okay."

"How about we go over to Maka's after this?" Kid optioned, "I'm sure she's awake, and she usually doesn't do much on the weekends."

Crona gave a small nod, "A-alright."

Death the Kid sighed internally, Crona had retreated back into her small shell, despite how open she was last night, the swordsman closed back up. It appeared that he would have to gradually move in to earn her trust once again how she did when he saved her, it would take time, but the efforts would be worth it.

The shinigami finished his apple and the two headed out, Crona trailing behind him a few steps, to Maka's apartment. But before they had even left the cafeteria, the shinigami remembered that he had left his black coat in her room and went to get it.

Crona had obviously decided to follow him, she didn't want to just wait where she stood, to her room. Besides, she needed to get something, it would be a bit of a challenge to do it unnoticed by Kid though. When they were once again in Crona's room, Death the Kid unhooked his black coat from the mirror over the sink and began to put it on.

The swordsman was standing near her dresser, hopefully not being suspicious, and slowly opened the top drawer, happy that the shinigami wasn't aware of her doing so, too busy straightening his coat. Death the Kid strode over to her bed and took up the blanket, going to hang it on the mirror instead of his daily attire.

Crona reached her hand into the drawer as Kid hung the blanket onto her mirror, hand feeling the cool metal of Lily's necklace and wrapping her hand around it. As Kid muttered to himself about the angles he wanted the blanket to hang, determined to have it symmetrical, Crona slipped the necklace into her dress pocket.

Death the Kid tugged at the edges of the blue long piece of fabric that was Crona's blanket as said swordsman stealthily shut her drawer unnoticed by the shinigami. He finally turned back to Crona and cheerily announced that they could be off to Maka's apartment once again.

They were about to climb the cemented steps to Maka's apartment on the third floor when Kid suddenly pulled Crona's arm, dragging her up the steps and staying in the shadows by standing against the walls.

"K-kid-kun, wh-why?" Crona began.

The shinigami answered quietly, "Liz."

Said pistol was walking down the sidewalk, seeming to obviously be murderously peeved. The dark blonde was growling, swinging her head around, looking for her meister. When she looked up, her eyes locked onto the shinigami as if she were aiming at him with a missile in waiting. Her blue eyes flashed, and the elder Thompson sister stomped his way.

Death the Kid rushed himself and Crona over to Maka's door, Crona nearly tripping in his haste, knocking on it three times politely, though in a frantic manner. As the door opened, Kid let go of his grip on Crona's arm, seeing Maka look at him suspiciously while opening the door.

The shinigami slipped into the apartment, "Hello, Maka, if you'd let me in please."

The blonde scythe technician raised an eyebrow at the shinigami as he pushed past her into the living room. Maka looked toward Crona for answers and the swordsman explained seeing the confusion on her friends face.

"Liz,"

"Ah, what'd he do this time." Maka asked.

Kid rubbed his temple, "I didn't come home yesterday."

Maka's emerald eyes widened, "What, why?"

"I couldn't fall asleep," he lied swiftly, "so I decided to take a walk."

"That lasted the whole night?" Maka questioned suspiciously.

"Yes."

The scythe meister eyed him carefully with her forest green eyes, hands on her hips, leaning onto one leg. The girl was in her light purple slippers and had a small waist apron tied around her. From the smells that were emitting from the close by kitchen, Maka was making a turkey lunch.

"Well," Maka sighed, "I'm sorry to say Kid, but I'm resting you to your grave."

The shinigami's gold eyes widened, "What!"

The scythe meister pushed the boy out the door and slammed the door, Kid tried to open the door, "What! Maka! Don't feed me to the sharks!"

Said meister said through the door, "Aw, Kid, Liz isn't a shark! She's more like a piranha."

"THAT'S STILL BAD!"

A low growl was heard a bit of ways behind the shinigami, "Kid…"

"No! Liz! Ow, ow, ow, okay, okay! That's my ear! Ow! Come on!"

Crona blinked at the commotion outside the door and Kid small painful pleads, Liz was silent in her fury, and it was possible that the swordsman wouldn't see him for the rest of that day by the sounds of it. Maka smiled brightly toward her friend as if nothing with Kid right then just happened.

"Hi, Crona, what brings you here?" she asked, playing her role as a host.

Crona blinked her blue eyes, still in thought about Liz dragging Kid away to rest on his deathbed, "U-um, I-I just wanted to come visit you. I g-get kind of l-lonely at my cell all the time."

The scythe meister's eyes seemed to sparkle, "That's great! I was getting pretty lonely myself, Soul's at Black*Star's right now, so I was just making some turkey to give me something to do. That thing has been sitting in our fridge for about a week now since I bought it on sale."

"O-oh," Crona replied.

Maka blinked, looking away from the oven, a bounced slightly, "Sorry, I'm still the host, aren't I? Come on, let's go into my room, we can talk there."

The blonde grabbed Crona by the wrist and led her over into her bedroom plopping onto the soft cushion of the bed, dragging Crona next to her. When Maka opened her mouth to say something, the telephone in the kitchen began to ring. With a sigh, the meister said she'd be right back and left Crona in the room.

Crona stuck her hand into her dress pocket and took out her necklace, putting it around her neck backwards to be able to hook it, finally getting it, she put it to the front again. Maka was still on the phone, so Crona saw her chance and opened the flat circular locket, skimming over the characters, squinting her eyes as she noticed that one of them was unfamiliar.

Seeing that Maka was hanging up, Crona squinted at the character one last time and stuffed the necklace back into her collar, adjusting it quickly as Maka came back. The blonde sat back on the bed next to her friend, swinging her leg back and forth.

"That was Soul," she explained, "he's going to be back in about an hour along with Black*Star."

The swordsman nodded, "Oh, alright."

Maka stroked her hand along a book on her nightstand, "I was reading this and it's been really good so far, I wonder if you would like it."

The depressed teenager tilted her head, "What's it about?"

Maka picked it up and showed her the front cover with a beam on her face, the title was written with the characters having an elegant brush stroke, the ends having loose curves. Crona squinted at the first character, it was the same on in her locket, and still unfamiliar.

"Er, Maka-chan?" Crona asked, "I don't recognize the first character, c-could you tell me what it is?"

The scythe technician looked down to the cover, "Oh, yeah. Medusa didn't teach you everything, especially this."

Maka laid the book into the gap between them on the bed, turning it toward Crona. She pointed to the character with a thoughtful look in her forest green eyes.

"Crona," she said sweetly, "This character right here means love."

The swordsman blinked at her friend and looked back down to the unfamiliar character Maka was pointing at, "L-love…?"

With a nod, Maka smiled, "Yes, I should have guessed Medusa wouldn't have taught you that."

"No," Crona responded sadly.

Maka patted her friend on the back, "It's okay, Crona! You have your friends now!"

The girl gave a weak smile, "Y-yeah."

"YAHOO!"

A bang was heard outside the bedroom, the front door leading to the living room was kicked open, revealing a certain blue haired ninja. He was laughing his cheerful laugh and Maka 'hmph'ed as she stomped over into the living room. Crona followed and saw Black*Star cheering himself on with his fist in the air as Soul slouched in.

The crimson eyes scythe sighed, "You couldn't wait for me to unlock the door?"

Black*Star raised his chin, "A god doesn't wait!"

"Whatever…" Soul muttered.

The ninja assassin snorted, "Your just jealous because I won the staring contest again."

"I am not!" Soul growl.

Black*Star waved a hand at him, "Yeah, yeah, stay in denial."

Maka rolled her eyes at the two and spoke to Crona, "You can just ignore them, they're idiots."

The ninja jumped in, "Hey, we aren't idiots!"

He swung an arm around Crona's neck and ruffled her head, "Isn't that right, Crona?"

"Maka Chop!"

"Ow!" black*Star rubbed his head, "What was that for?"

"Teasing Crona." Maka answered folding her arms.

"I wasn't teasing her!"

"Yes, you were."

"Was not!"

"Dude, in Maka's view, you did." Soul butted in.

Black*Star stuck his tongue out at the scythe and his meister and turned to Crona, "Was I teasing you?"

Crona shrunk back with her eyes closed, "I don't want to take part in this argument!"

Maka slammed her book down onto Black*Star's head again, "See, now you've made her upset!"

"What the crap?" Grumbled the ninja, clutching his bleeding head.

Crona watched the scene with her blue eyes as her friends grumbled, Maka and Black*Star being the dominant in the argument while Soul tried to break them apart. The swordsman quietly slipped from the room, out the front door, and descended the steps.

They would realize sooner or later that she had disappeared, which would result in another argument, and more Maka Chops. This new life was still oh so very confusing to get used to.

While in thought, Crona aimlessly walked down the sidewalk, finally breaking from her trance when she heard her name being called. Someone was running up to her from down the street, waving excitedly to get her attention, Crona recognized who it was once they came closer, another trailing behind.

Taichi was sprinting in the swordsman's direction, his undone blue button up flannel shirt waving with him as he ran, the white T-shirt underneath revealed. His blue eyes shone and his blonde hair flopped buoyantly on his forehead, he stopped in front of Crona with a grin.

Ryzo wasn't too far behind, walking at his own calm pace, hands in his beige slacks. He sighed and put an arm above his eyes to block out some of the sun as he nodded a greeting toward Crona.

"Hey, what's up, Crona?" Taichi asked enthusiastically.

Crona blinked at the male blonde, "U-um, t-the sky, isn't it?"

The swordsman was confused when Taichi burst out into laughter, even Ryzo smirked a bit at her comment. The male meister clapped a hand onto Crona's back, amused at her unfamiliarity at the outside world. Maka had explained to him all about Crona, he already knew she was originally on Shinigami's list, it was wide news when Soul got hurt.

Of course he liked the would-have-been-Kishin, and was even waiting on asking her to the Valentine's Dance that was in a month.

"Ah, Crona. It's slang!" Taichi explained to the swordsman about the phrase he had used as a greeting.

"S-slang?" she asked.

Ryzo squinted at the sun as he answered for his meister, "Basically it's more modern way to say more formal greetings. 'What's up', in terms, is slang for 'how are you doing'."

Crona nodded, "Oh, okay. Ryzo-san, you're smart."

The serious student grinned, "Thanks."

Taichi seemed to pout, "Hey, Ryzo~ You're taking the attention, I was the one who wanted to talk to Crona."

"Then talk to her." The other shrugged.

"Fine then" Taichi muttered, turning back to Crona, "Ne, Crona-chan? Are you still up for the mission we're going on next Wednesday?"

The swordsman recalled that Taichi had invited her to go on a mission with him, "Yes, I'm still going."

"Great!" the blonde beamed, "Kilik is coming to!"

Crona nodded and Taichi tilted his head, "Ne, Crona-chan, where's that little blob thing?"

"Ragnarok?"

"Yeah, him!"

Crona hesitated, "Ah, well, he's… sleeping."

That wasn't necessarily a lie.

Ryzo didn't believe her entirely, but Taichi seemed to fall for it, he grinned, "Oh, I just wanted to say hi to him."

"I-I'll tell him hi for you when he wakes up." Crona told him.

With a thumbs-up, Taichi smiled and said he'd see her later at school. The swordsman waved good-bye as he and Ryzo left to go visit (For Taichi, annoy) Kim and Jacqueline.

The swordsman smiled and remembered something, doing it now before she forgot. Reaching into her collar, Crona gingerly lifted the locket in her palm. She pried it open and read over the engraving, now that there was no one around, distractions, and that she knew what that one unfamiliar character meant.

…

**A/N: Mmn, yes, I'm very cruel. I'm going to make you wait until next chapter to figure out what the locket says! And we all know it takes me an eternity to update. Here's just to add to your list of groans: My school semester is coming in just a week, so I'll have even less time to write my fan fiction. Right now I get, like, eight hours to type (symmetrical number!) and it takes me forever; when school starts, I won't be able to write at most thirty minutes.**

**So, I'm going to write my story at K8Dunn's house (I go there for three hours) so I'll type what I can there. I hope that I'll be able to still manage this story, and I'm sorry that K8Dunn will have so many spoilers on this she'll know the entire storyline (she's already gotten plenty of spoilers from me). Anyways, whoever took the time to read this, I love you (not in a creepy way, in an author to reader kind of way). **

**PLZ REVIEW! Or Raggy shall remain forever tranquilized. Okay, stupid threat, but pleeeaasse review!**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Wow, this took a long time to post. Really sorry, you guys…. I've just been really laz- Busy, ya know, with school and all. So… here's the next chapter! **

**Responses to Reviews: **

**Dino kid: Aw~ don't hate on Taichi =3 He's just supposed to be the loveable person that nobody wants to be around type of guy. **

**KlonoaDreams: I'll be working on it! I'm still churning over the plot through my head every night , I just don't get it down on paper and it goes away D= **

**Wolfman6696: yes, Higurashi is very violent. Whoever says it's not is blind. But Genocyber and Elfen Lied are far worse. T.T **

**SJ Stillwell: Kid is not Kid without the OCD! Thank you for complimenting the story~! =3 **

**Purple-Eyed Devil: Ah, don't worry, I'll try to squeeze everything in. **

**Mikitsan: Kid being jealous is one of the things we may never see in the official manga/anime, that's why fan fictions rock~ =3 **

**Pollardy: (*Spoilers for those other than Pollardy reading*) The ending I saw was the dude's (Mokoto, I think?) head in a bag and a girl's stomach getting ripped open because she was said 'pregnant'. **

**WikiSorcerer: To be honest, it was kind of intended that way. In the beginning, his hate overcame his mating instinct since Kid can push away his emotions. But as he finally gets on better terms (being the I-don't-talk-to-you-you-don't-talk-to-me), his mating instinct was creeping up on him. Finally when he went to sleep, when his guard was down, his emotions came to him and suddenly he has the odd urge to follow Crona (as he thought himself it was strange and weird). But, I guess I should have gradually had him show his emotion, but I was just too excited to finally get it over with *sweatdrop*. **

**Aisha: Yeah, my parents are a bummer -.-'. But I will most defiantly try to update (more is to make) my chapters.**

** Sulfur angel: Please have mercy upon me with your advanced high school knowledge, I'm only thirteen T.T **

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing other than the plot and the OCs… and Lily's necklace, but that's it! **…

Chapter 16: Lunch with the Others

Crona looked down at the engraving in her locket, carefully reading each character to sink in the meaning of the words. The swordsman stroked the creases of the characters, marveling at the message inside, whispering it aloud. Noticing a small black smudge on the inside, Crona wiped at it, but did not succeed in making it go away. With a small sigh, the swordsman gave up, and instead thought of the pretty poem inside of her locket.

Closing the locket with a small snap, Crona slipped it back inside of her collar, smiling happily as she walked back to Shibusen. Upon reaching her cell, Crona leaned against the metal door and slid onto the floor, hand laying on her neck. Looking up at the torches lined across the stone walls of the corridor, Crona's eyes gazed at the flickering flames, the shadows of the light dancing through the hall, making Crona relax. The swordsman's eyes shut peacefully and she began to fall asleep, random colorful pictures floating through her mind.

There were images of soft and light colors swirling together in a slow waltz, the tinkering chime of a sweet child like melody on a piano in the distance of the background. A violin came into play with the piano, soft, but strong in emotion, a pleasant darkness of the music. As Crona dreamt of the sound, the light colors of lavender silk and sky blue waters morphed into a deep velvet like violet and a pitch black of curtains. This beautiful sound, the violin, the piano deep and emotional with the low chords, it was so relaxing, this dark yet pleasant aura (1).

Suddenly, Crona's eyes furrowed as the scent of roses surrounded her, it was a sweet fragrance, she's smelt roses before, but where was this coming from? Opening her eyes, Crona found that there was a certain shinigami close to her, a bit too close. (2)

Gasping as she found that he was holding her in his arms bridal style, Crona started to squeak out his name, "K-k-kid-kun!"

Death the Kid looked down to her as he set her on her bed, "Oh, sorry for waking you."

"W-why w-were you c-carrying me?" Crona asked, recovering herself.

Death the Kid's gold eyes looked at her, "I was looking for you after Liz physically abused my ears from her yelling, but I found you asleep right outside the door and figured that I should put you on the bed. Though, I didn't plan to wake you up."

Crona twisted her dress in her fist, "O-oh, I-it's okay."

Kid sighed, "Liz threw in, in the midst of her yelling, that she and the others are going to lunch. She wanted me to ask you if you'd like to come."

"S-sure!" Crona answered excitedly, she wouldn't pass up the chance to be with her friends.

"And of course they asked Kilik, Ox, Kim, and their weapons to come too." Kid added, "With Ryzo and Taichi as well…"

Crona looked up curiously at Death the Kid's obvious grudging attitude toward the male blonde, "K-kid-kun? Why do you not like Taichi?"

The shinigami looked at her and calmed down with a weary sigh, "Ah, well… how would I put it? I suppose it's just that I don't feel comfortable around him, no… He's… nauseatingly happy. It just burns a hole in me when he's so enthusiastic."

"Does happiness make you uncomfortable?" Crona asked.

Death the Kid tried to word his response, "No…It's just the over enthusiasm that irritates me."

"I see…" Crona mumbled.

Knock, knock.

Both teenagers looked at the door, Crona responded, "W-who is it?"

"Maka." Came the reply.

"Oh, come in."

The blonde appeared in the doorway, not noticing Death the Kid, and smiled, "Hey, Crona, everyone else and I are going to lunch, do you want to come?"

"I've already asked her, the answer is yes." Death the Kid made his presence known.

Maka was shocked to find the shinigami there, but then immediately narrowed her eyes, "What are you doing here?"

Kid kept his straight posture, "I found Crona sleeping outside the door and brought her in here, would have rather me left her there?"

Suspiciously eyeing him as she turned back to Crona, Maka beamed again, "So do you want to come?"

"O-of course." Crona responded.

"Let's go, Soul is was already getting impatient when I asked to get you."

"A-alright." Crona responded, getting herself out of her cot.

Maka looked at Kid and said, almost reluctantly, "You can come too…"

Death the Kid's gold eyes slid over to the blonde scythe meister, "Thank you, Maka, for the invitation."

Maka smiled at his politeness, and was squealing internally, seeing that he was starting to accept Crona more as someone more than the enemy. That was a major up point for them all.

"Okie dokie , then! Let's go." The scythe meister beamed and began to head out the door.

…

"Ugh, finally!" Soul groaned upon seeing Maka, Crona, and Kid walking toward him.

His meister stuck her tongue out at him, "Shut up! I wanted Crona to come along, I'm so sorry that it takes five minutes to get to her room and back."

"Whatever, let's just get to the place." Soul rolled his eyes.

'The place' turned out to be at DeathBucks, as they recently got a small restaurant attached to the original coffee building. Already there was BlackStar- who was energetically standing on one of the tables with Tsubaki begging him to get off- Tsubaki (of course), Liz, Patty, Taichi, Ryzo, Ox Ford, Harvar, Kilik, Fire, Thunder, Kim, and Jacqueline.

They hadn't gotten a table yet and were waiting patiently- some not- for them to finally arrive.

"'Sup guys?" Soul asked nonchalantly.

"What took you so long?" BlackStar asked whining, "I'm starving!"

"BlackStar, sh!" Tsubaki scolded.

Soul rubbed the back of his head, "Well, Maka was taking forever trying to get Crona."

Maka whacked him on the back of his head with the flat of her famous book, "Shut up! I wanted Crona to come along!"

Groaning as he held onto the forming bruise on the back of his head, " Geez! Can't I go a day without getting hit by that thing! ?"

"Apparently not." Maka stated, folding her arms.

Tsubaki bowed politely, "I'm glad you made it."

Maka smiled brightly toward the ninja weapon, "Thank you for being so nice, Tsubaki!"

Said girl gave a modest laugh and turned back to BlackStar. Crona smiled at the playful scene before her as Liz and Patty began to pester Kid while Taichi was trying unsuccessfully to create conversation with the shinigami. Soul booked a table outside, with his eye twitching as Ox discussed with Kilik that a bird was sure to target their table, and told the others that it would be about five minutes until a space for them would become available.

Death the Kid sighed internally as Taichi chatted happily with him, trying to get the shinigami to socialize with him. Kid threw in series of 'mhmm's and 'oh's, watching the wall in front of him.

"… so my cat died after that." Taichi finished sadly, finally catching Kid's attention with being done telling the story.

"How devastating." Kid told him dully.

Taichi grinned, "Well, at least she didn't have to suffer!"

"Mm, yes, how grateful your cat must feel."

"Your table is ready," a waitress announced as she appeared, menus in arm, leading them out to the wrap around deck of the new attachment restaurant.

The teenagers followed her to the floor balcony, all of the small tables pushed together for the room to fit them all. After they were all seated, the waitress told them she would be back in a bit since she had forgotten the menus.

Patty pulled something out of the pocket of her puffy shorts and presented it to the others, a happy grin on her face as her blue eyes sparkled childishly.

Maka raised a wheat colored eyebrow, "Bubbles?"

"Yeah!" Patty exclaimed.

"But, why?" Maka asked.

Patty beamed, "'Cause I thought of something! Watch!"

Pulling out the small green wand from the little bottle of bubbles and held to her mouth; the gun leaned across the table to blow the bubbles into Crona's face. Crona sat still with her eyes wide at the small glittering round circles.

Death the Kid had taken a seat a respectable distance away from Crona, her in the middle left, and him on the top right. Though she was his fated 'love'- damn shinigami mating- Kid would still have to treat her as he would a normal person until she finally felt the same emotion for him as he did her.

It would be frustrating, he knew it already, Kid was still holding onto a grudge that he should detest the swordsman, but it couldn't be helped, urges of wanting to see her happy wasn't going away. But, compressing his emotions to the side was a natural habit of his, so maybe it wouldn't be too hard. Patience was all he needed to survive waiting for the girl to return the favor of love, and Kid had large amounts of patience.

Though, Kid was thinking of something as he stared at a cloud that looked like a teapot, did witches mate? Perhaps that Crona would merely through him away because witches- and witches' bearing- didn't mate forever, only a temporary person at their side until they got bored.

In his deep thinking, Kid was oblivious to the squeals of the girls outside of his concentration, all noise muffled away. It wasn't until the shinigami felt something round cram against his face, causing him to wake from his pondering immediately, that Kid remembered that he was with others.

Shaking away from the force that hit him, Death the Kid looked to the predator that came at him, greeted by the black and white face of Ragnarok. Kid's gold eyes widened at the unexpected return of the weapon, he should have woken up later that night instead of the early noon. Ragnarok seemed he was trying to push against the vreisemblance sedate, which would make the effect lasting shorter.

"Ragnarok! Don't hurt shinigami-kun!" a soft voice pleaded in a whine.

Crona pulled back her partner from glaring at the small boy, an apologetic expression on her face even as she tried to console Ragnarok not to injure the shinigami. The swordsman apologized fiercely to the boy, but he wasn't listening, instead noting how he could reach out to touch her face and watch the cute reaction of shock in the pale blue eyes.

Than realizing his absurd thoughts, Kid shook away from the images floating around in his mind, knowing that there were other people apart from Crona there, and he shouldn't- even she _was_ his fated mate- be thinking that way about Crona. Yes, he'd accepted Crona as a girl, but he shouldn't have romantically interest yet; he was still young.

"Kid?"

The shinigami finally dragged himself away from his thoughts altogether, "Yes?"

Maka raised a blonde eyebrow as Crona looked at him concerned next to the scythe technician, "Well, you were all spaced out, and Crona was starting to get all panicky."

"Oh, sorry, I was thinking." Death the Kid explained with a sheepish grin.

"About what?" Soul asked, hands in his pockets as he pulled Maka down to sit down.

The shinigami answered, "Nothing really in particular."

Kid looked over to Crona, Ragnarok merely sitting on the pink tufts of her hair, "I think I'm going to have to take Crona away to have a discussion with my father."

"What, why?" Patty asked.

"Because, the sedate Ragnarok took won't last very long, I have to take her to my father."

Maka sighed, "I'm sure it can wait. Come on, just relax, I'm sure Raggy here will be just fine when we're done eating."

Grumbling, Kid was pushed back into his seat by Liz, "Yeah, Kid," she told him, "just relax for once."

"Okay! I'm back." the waitress appeared, several menus tucked under her arm, "Sorry I took so long."

The menus were passed around to the teenagers, Kid muttering about how everyone there was irresponsible for keeping the information they had from his father.

The waitress asked for the types of beverages each of them would like.

Maka chose lemonade, Soul chose a coke ('because all the cool guys drink coke' he had said), BlackStar ordered a Gatorade, Tsubaki ordered a raspberry tea, Death the Kid ordered a coffee, Liz ordered a pepsi, Patty got a HI-C, Crona just got water, Ragnarok wasn't allowed to since he wanted one of the alcoholic drinks; Kilik got a pepsi as well, Fire and Thunder both lemonade, Kim got a root beer, Jacqueline ordered a root beer too, Ox requested diet cokes with Harvard, Taichi got apple juice ('because Ryzo says it makes me mellow for some reason.'), and Ryzo just got a coke.

The table laughed and giggled as they read the words on the menus, debating and asking others whether this or that tasted good. Patty yanked out her bubbles again and began blowing at the liquid furiously, the bubbles streaming out into the air. Ragnarok licked at the small orbs, popping them in his mouth.

Kid's young weapon laughed as she kept blowing the bubbles at Ragnarok as he proceeded to eat the bubbles. The others at the table, even Ryzo, chuckled at the black blob's childish acting with the bubbles, Crona giving a small giggle at her partner's adorableness.

The waitress returned and asked for their food orders, Crona merely got a small salad, saying that she wasn't that hungry, while Ragnarok was being persuaded not to demand a large steak.

Throughout the entire lunch, Ragnarok was being questioned endlessly; it seemed that the chemical made him answer them without resisting, though every once in a while he would think over some things.

"Do you _really _not like me?" Maka asked curiously, wondering what the blob thought of her.

"I don't hate you." the weapon answered, "though you get annoying sometimes.'

Maka mulled this over then brightened, "Good enough for me!"

About forty-five minutes later, after all of their food had come and been eaten (Ragnarok whining over Crona's salad and cheering when Kim offered some of the ribs she ordered to him), Kid finally began to rush Crona out of the restaurant, wanting to get to his father ASAP.

Kid was badgering about getting Crona to his father, but the group was ignoring him completely, remaining to talk to the pink haired girl. Liz got up from her seat and made her way over to Crona, wrapping an arm around the swordsman and smiling.

"It's so much more fun when you leave your shell. Maybe you should hang with Patty and me, we could take you shopping." Liz tried to lure the girl into making a path for her to dress up the swordsman.

Crona began to smile and opened her her mouth to answer, but the girl's eyes got droopy and hazed as her body fell limp. Liz eyes widened and let go of the girl, causing the swordsman to fall out of the chair onto the ground, making the pistol rush to pick her up.

"What happened to Crona!" Maka panicked.

Death the Kid rose from his seat with his gold eyes wide, making his way over to where the girls where while everyone else was trying to crowd in as well. The shinigami pushed his way passed Soul to look at the unconscious swordsman that was laying in Liz's grasp, the brunette blond fanning the lavender haired with her free hand."

"Liz, what did you do!" Kid exclaimed

"N-nothing!" she replied, "All I did was hug her!"

"Here!" Kim said as she skidded on her knees next to Crona with a glass of water, nudging Liz away from the swordsman.

The pistol let the girl slip from her arms onto the other pink haired girl's lap, Kim looked down to the swordsman seriously, with the glass still held in her hand. Crona immediately gasped as Kim splashed the contents of the glass on her face, navy blue eyes wide as she swung her head around to look at the others crowded in a swarm around her.

"Crona, are you alright?" Maka asked in a concerned voice.

"W-what?" Crona was confused as to why she was on the floor, "W-what happened?"

Kim helped Crona up from her lap, letting the swordsman sit up as Maka answered, "Liz just put her arm around you and you just collapsed."

With a blink, Crona wiped the water away from her face, "O-oh, b-but why?"

"We don't know." everyone told her in unison.

Taichi pushed forward and stuck out a hand to help Crona up, grinning as the swordsman took the offer, pouting as Death the Kid stole away the girl. Death the Kid took a napkin and started to pat at Crona's cheek, trying to dry the remaining water that was soaking the white collar of her dress.

Finally the shinigami was able to get the swordsman away from them all, rushing her to the middle of the city to Shibusen. Ragnarok was whining about how they were going to fast and he had to wrap his arms around Crona's head to keep balance.

As they appeared before the door that entered into Shinigami's dome, Kid flipped his jet hair away from his forehead in attempt to not seem as if he just ran, dragging a teenage girl behind him. Knocking on the door politely, still catching his breath, Kid straightened up.

"Come in~!" Shinigami's carefree voice spoke from inside the room.

Death the Kid grabbed Crona's wrist and pulled her inside with him, Ragnarok growling at him to not touch his meister. Shinigami was standing buoyantly in the middle of the room, swinging his body seeing the teenagers arrive.

"Ah, hello, hello!"

Death the Kid looked up to his father as they got closer to the elder shinigami, "Hello, Father."

Bending down, Shinigami looked at the two teenagers, "I see that Ragnarok has come back a bit early~."

"Mm, yes," Kid replied a bit glumly, sad that the little black blob had come back so early, "he did come back rather unexpectedly."

Ragnarok swung his head to the boy and asked angrily, "What? I'm not pleasant?"

"No."

Pouting as he nestled back it Crona's hair, Ragnarok looked up at Shinigami, "What is it you want?"

"We need to question you over some things, about witches and such." Shinigami answered.

"Well, shoot."

Shinigami straightened, "First off, what was it that Medusa had written on her lab wall?"

Ragnarok tilted his spherical head, "Huh?"

Death the Kid went over to the weapon and pulled out a square photograph, "Here, I took a photograph of it."

Crona looked at the boy beside her, "I see a camera with you."

Kid shrugged.

Ragnarok looked at the photograph with his x pupil eyes uneven in examination, "That stupid ring of names on her wall? Why do you need that?"

Shinigami tilted his head, "Names?"

"Yeah, it's just names of Medusa's relatives or whatever." Ragnarok answered, "They're nothing special."

"What are they used for?" Death the Kid asked.

The sword turned a head to him, "Quit pushing me, Stripes. It's used for spells or whatever, with spirits or some thingamajig like that."

"Spirits?" Shinigami asked curiously.

"Yeah," Ragnarok answered, "Is that all you need? Can I go now?"

"Of course not!" Shinigami chirped, I would also like you to translate some of the papers my son gathered."

The blob was shoved a stack of papers, written in the witch's foreign language.

"It's just some random crap about the black blood." Ragnarok answered.

Death the Kid held the bridge of his nose with a sigh, "Yes, we would like to know what it says, Ragnarok."

"Hey, there's no need to get all pissy at me, Three Stripes."

"Ragnarok!" Crona scolded.

Death the Kid glared at the weapon that was resting on Crona's head, "Just tell us what it means."

The blob rolled his eyes, "It's just an entry saying that gold weakens us."

Shinigami tilted his head, "Weakens you?"

"Yeah," Ragnarok answered, "That's why little pathetic here fainted when the Liz chick got near her with that gold necklace."

'So that's why.' Kid thought.

"Hm, that's very interesting." Shinigami stated, giant finger at his chin.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Ragnarok exclaimed, "Don't be getting any ideas that you're going to knock me out again just because you wanted to see if it would work!"

Shinigami chuckled, "I wouldn't do that!"

"Are you sure?" Kid muttered.

"Anyways!" Shinigami changed the subject, "I would also like it if you would be able to translate any important entries in Medusa's journal."

Crona's body froze entirely, powder gray eyes locked onto cross she was looking at to the side of her, the hands that were twisted in the black fabric of her dress stopped like a machine stopped mid-process of a task.

Death the Kid's eyebrows furrowed as he looked up at his father, "Father? What are you talking about?"

Shinigami looked at him curiously for a moment than realized, "Ah, I suppose I didn't explain that. Crona, don't worry, you won't be punished."

The swordsman looked up shakily to the elder of the group, "I-I won't?"

"Nope."

Crona took a deep breath, "A-all I-I've read s-so far was the last entry…"

"Can you tell me about what you read in the diary?" Shinigami asked Crona.

The swordsman hesitated, "Um… well… I don't really… not comfortable with…"

Shinigami gazed to Ragnarok, "How about you tell me?"

"Ya, see, I don't really wanna say either." the weapon responded.

Death the Kid glared at the blob, "Tell us."

Ragnarok growled, but answered, the vreisemblance sedate couldn't make him answer easily, but made him say, "Okay. The only thing we read was the part on the day we fought you guys."

"Could you describe the entry, please?"

Ragnarok began to recite the entry from his memory, not missing a single word, "_Today is the Christmas Eve event, today is the day that I shall succeed in reviving the Kishin Asura. My façade as a nurse has not failed me, and today is the day that I am grateful for the one thing Shinigami had done… giving me the job. Maka and Soul are still infected with the black blood Ragnarok gave them, the revival should probably plunge them into madness if all goes to plan._

"_Since I know that my identity will most likely be revealed, I am going to have Crona join into my plans for fighting, it should be able to kill them, or at least hold them of. It will be a good experiment on how long the child will last against some of Shibusen's students or staff. _

"_Once the revival of the Kishin is complete, it would only be wise to dispose of my worthless child, it apparently didn't have the right skills to accomplish in turning into a demon god. Though, better yet, once Asura is in my circle of allies, he could have their souls, Ragnarok is powerful enough to give the Kishin a burst of energy."_

Shinigami listened to the entry with great attention, not really surprised at Medusa's words, Death the Kid however had his yellow eyes narrowed angrily.

"_I hadn't thought of what to do with Crona, but I have a plan now. After Asura is officially accompanying me, I shall rid Ragnarok form its body and return Crona with regular red blood, Ragnarok's soul shall be given to Asura and Crona will, obviously, be abandoned."_

Kid was now clenching his fists together furiously, the pale skin at his knuckles stretched over the bone so tightly, it seemed like the flesh would tear.

"_It's a possibility that Crona will die without Ragnarok, no, that's a given fact. The child will be killed or mangled by a bear, something of that sort, but that is only more convenient for myself. End entry, I shall update after tonight on how the plan went."_

Shinigami sighed, "I suppose that would be expected of Medusa."

"Completely ice cold and cruel." Kid stated heatedly.

"You may go now." shinigami informed the pink haired girl, "but I would like you to translate the other entries from your mother's journal. And as a side note, when the sedate wears off, it's most likely that Ragnarok won't be able to remember most of everything since he's been awake."

The swordsman left the room shakily, twining her fingers together as Ragnarok sat atop her head, grumbling about the papers he was supposed to translate. Crona's job was to get her partner to translate the entries in Medusa's diary, maybe they would be able to gather information from it.

It was awkwardly quiet between the swordsman and her partner, so Crona tried to say something, taking advantage of Ragnarok's truthful state, "Um…w-what's your favorite color?"

Ragnarok looked down at his meister, "Where'd this come from?"

"I-I don't know, but will you answer?"

"Black."

Crona smiled at her partner's support, "Song?'

"I dunno."hurt you.

"Story?"

"Since when do I read?"

The two entered Crona's small dungeon-like dorm, and as Crona sat down in her corner, she proceeded to ask questions, "Why do you bully me?"

"They're lessons to you." the weapon answered.

"Why don't you like my friends? Crona asked next.

"I'm fine with them, It's just stripes."

"Why don't you like shinigami-kun?" Crona asked curiously.

"Because he hurt you."

"He apologized."

"So?"

"But you poke at me all the time!" Crona told him, "Why is he any different?"

"He _really_ hurt you, and your like an annoying little sister to me."

Crona bit on her lip, "Do you regret being put in me?"

The weapon kept silent for a moment, but when he finally answered, there was hesitance, "… no… not really. Sometimes it to not have legs, though, I would have pounded that shinigami to pulp by now."

Crona wrapped her arms around her legs and pushed them close her chest, "He was really nice to me yesterday."

"And?"

"Ragnarok…?" Crona asked hesitantly, "What would you say if I told you that I like Death the Kid-san?"

"What do you mean?" The weapon questioned.

Crona squirmed, "I mean, that whenever I'm near shinigami-kun, I start to feel weird. Do think that that maybe something's wrong with feeling that way?"

"… I don't know." The blob answered.

The swordsman wrung her dress in her fists, remembering her dream '_Love is a damned emotion that only takes advantage of people._'

Crona bit onto her lip harder, "What do you think I should you?"

"Huh?" The weapons voice was groggy, "What 'appened?"

'He's back to normal.' Crona thought.

"Never mind…"

Crona remembered the engraving that was in the locket as she tried to just relax: _Though the metal is cold, let my emotions remain warm. Beneath all of this hate and despair, there is always love. _

The poem had a deep feeling with it Crona couldn't name, a warm fuzziness in her chest area that almost seemed to throb painfully. Were these the emotions that Lily felt when that man gave the necklace to her? This strong emotion that made you smile and become thoughtful. How could she have left him? Was it as the engraving said though? Beneath all of this hate and despair… were times hard? Crona shook her head, this was Lily's past, not hers, she shouldn't be thinking over this.

With one last word to her partner, the swordsman snuggled into her corner and hugged onto her knees, wondering how Lily was doing.

…...

**A/N: Erm, okay, so maybe writing this chapter took longer than I wanted it to… But it's up! =D**

**Please review? **


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Okay, I don't really think I'll be able to update by Halloween, which was pretty much my goal. I've been spending a lot of time reading Death Note and finally finishing my first video (I have limited experience with PowerPoint presentations let alone videos I fantasize about to put on YouTube.) Since the computer didn't want to convert it to a movie file (because I merely own Windows Movie Maker), it took me longer than I wanted to, to get it onto YouTube (If you want to see my first creation, the link will be at the end). So I'm deeply sorry, but I'll try my hardest to get the next chapter up.

**Link to my (very first!) video: .com/watch?v=sZpddl4SeuQ**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: OMG, This chapter is finally up!**

**Reponses to Reviews:**

**Sorry, I'm didn't do it so I could post this faster (I'm such a procrastinator)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.**

…**...**

Chapter 18:

Wednesday

DING DONG DEAD DONG

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Really? Because you can back out."

"I-I'll be fine."

"I just don't trust him… You're sure?"

"Y-yes, Maka. I'll be okay."

It was after class and Maka and Crona were discussing about how it was Wednesday, meaning that the swordsman had a mission with a certain enthusiastic male blonde. Maka was still hesitant to let Crona be around Taichi since he made her uncomfortable with his forced closeness, but it couldn't be helped, it wasn't like he was a bad person or anything, it was just that he gets into attached friend relationships too much.

"Mmn," Maka bit on her lip, "I just don't want him to make you uncomfortable."

Crona gave a small smile, such an expression that made everyone lighten up on the inside, "Don't worry, I don't think Taichi-kun will do anything that you wouldn't like."

With a sigh, Maka gave a mother-like beam, "Okay, I suppose if you think that nothing's wrong him, I'll just have to trust that boy."

"What boy?"

Maka and Crona turned around to see Taichi walking toward them with his bright blue eyes curious. He stopped next to Crona, tilting his head at both of them innocently.

Taichi had come back from talking to Death the Kid, and when he went over to ask Crona if she was ready to head off for the mission, he had overheard Maka saying that she apparently distrusted someone. Death the Kid had wanted to ask him something, so he didn't get to catch the part where Maka had said the name. The shinigami had asked if it was too late to be able to join him and Crona on their mission.

"_Why though? When I asked you last time, I got a cold rejection." Taichi grumbled._

_Death the Kid kept his glance away from the blonde boy, "I changed my mind."_

"_Well, once the names are down no one else can come unless you ask for 'her' permission." Taichi explained._

"_I'll ask her." Kid had answered._

_Taichi raised an eyebrow, "You can try, but she's not a very giving person, more than likely she'll say no."_

_Death the Kid ran a hand through the back of his hair, "Let's see what she says."_

_The shinigami had walked off into the hall to go speak with the teacher that assigned mission that was only a few doors down from the classroom. Taichi waited patiently for the boy to come back, even though curiosity wanted him to eavesdrop on Crona and Maka. _

_Kid appeared again and said sadly, "She told me no."_

"_See?" Taichi responded._

Now he was late on hearing in on the girls' conversation, he knew it wasn't very good to nose around other people's business, but he was a curious person.

"Oh, nothing." Maka replied to the question he had asked.

Taichi blinked, "Okie-dokie."

He turned to Crona, "Well, come one, Ryzo is waiting for me to get you, and he isn't very patient."

With a nod, Crona waved good-bye to her best friend, trailing after her mission buddy to meet up with his weapon, whom of which was at the doorway leading out to the campus of Shibusen. He was squinting as he shaded his eyes from the laughing sun, dark skin contrasting with the crisp white shirt he had on, the opposite colors going together nicely.

"You look really nice in white, Ryzo." Crona complimented hesitantly, afraid the serious boy would glare at her.

Instead the boy blinked, not used to hearing compliments-as many people feared his lack of humor-, and grinned slightly at the girl. Crona squirmed a little under the gaze, but was enlightened by the positive reaction, instead of the negative outcome she had expected.

Lowering his hand from shielding his eyes from the bright rays, Ryzo looked toward his partner, "Come on, let's go. We need to get to Maine(A/N: Gosh, I haven't done this fan fiction in so long that I actually had to backtrack to the chapter this was mentioned on.)."

With a beam, Taichi enthusiastically dragged along Crona and Ryzo in the direction of the airport they were going to use to get over the state that was on the complete opposite of the country they were in.

…

"I-I've n-never been on a p-plane before." Crona stuttered nervously, nearly hyperventilating in her seat on said airplane.

Taichi laughed, "Ah, it's okay. Nothing will happen."

The pilot used the speaker overhead to inform everyone that they were going to leave soon, causing Crona to nervously hold onto her arm tightly. Taichi noticed her nervousness, also making note of the way she always held her arm in situations that she found scary.

"Hey, Crona," Taichi started, "Why do you always hold onto your arm when you're nervous?"

The swordsman looked over at him with her navy eyes curious as to why he asked such a question, "U-um, well… I-I don't know why."

In fact, Crona wasn't sure why she did so, it was a nervous habit that had naturally come to her.

The plane started and Crona tried to make the seat she was in swallow her, the fear that the aircraft was going to plummet down and kill her. Finally, the airplane took off, leaving the ground, making Crona let out a small squeak.

Ryzo sighed when Taichi began to encourage the swordsman, though it wasn't helping with the blonde trying to hold back laughter.

…

"See, that wasn't so bad!" Taichi chirped as he patted Crona on the back, who was lying down on the ground, savoring the feel of the earth below her.

Crona had gotten lightheaded from the movement of the plane and fainted momentarily, when she woke up, everyone was glad when she resisted the urge to throw up. Ryzo sighed and told his partner to leave Crona alone and not bother her with his annoyingness.

"Aw~" Taichi pouted, "I'm not that annoying."

"Yes you are." Ryzo told him coldly, "Come on, let's go."

Crona lifted herself from the ground and followed after the two boys, holding onto her squeamish stomach, still queasy from the plane trip. Taichi was enthusiastically pointing out some things, yelling about random things (for some reason, he felt that one of the pigeons was his grandmother's reincarnation).

"Yes, who's a good bird?" Taichi cooed to the pigeon he insisted was his grandmother, stroking the animal's head, the glossy gray feathers ruffling at his touch.

The swordsman was amazed at the fact the bird was perched upon the boy's shoulder, don't birds usually _avoid_ human's? Anyways, it seems that the pigeon was perfectly content being in contact with Taichi's body, letting out small coos near his ear, making him try to translate the noises for hidden words.

"Um… Taichi?" Crona asked, "Where are we going? Y-you never told me what we were supposed to be killing."

Taichi looked back at the swordsman, interrupting his 'conversation' with the bird on his shoulder to look back to Crona, "Oh, we're supposed to be tracking down this army of midget things that are killing off humans."

With a nod, Crona merely followed the blonde and his weapon to where they were headed.

…

"This is where we're supposed to be?" Ragnarok asked Taichi, as he had recently come out to join in with the others.

"Yep." The male blonde replied.

The teenagers were standing in a plain field of about fifty acres, dead grass up to their waist, ruffling harshly with the wind. Crona squirmed as the rough grass scratched at her hands, looking around warily for anything that might come and attack them.

"When do you think they'll come?" Crona asked.

Ryzo looked at the black watch (Taichi Resistant, he might add) on his wrist, "They should be here shortly. It's beginning to be evening, and they show at around six."

A rustle was heard in the long grass several meters away, catching the teenagers' attention. Ragnarok transformed and was grasped tightly by Crona, the black glint of the elegant sword contrasting with the washed out, dull colors of the field. Taichi looked at Ryzo, and the weapon nodded, glowing a shining red as he morphed into his weapon form. The blonde caught his partner and smiled happily while Crona stared wide eyed at the shape that was made. "I-it's a katar.(1)" Crona acknowledged. Grinning with a sadistic glint in his bright eyes, Taichi replied, "Yep." Crona had seen a katar in action before, and it had not been pretty; the weapon is a bladed knuckle glove, when you spread out your hand from its fist, the one blade separates into three, allowing the user to twist the knives inside the victim's insides. The sight of seeing such a nice person like Taichi wield something so deadly- and horrifyingly graphic while killing- was something Crona feared. The rustle was heard, again, closer this time, and the two meisters spotted a black form a little ways away. Suddenly it rushed at them and made itself visible, a small body (about the size of a child) went and tried to bite at them. The pigeon on Taichi's shoulder flapped away and accompanied the small black soldier by landing on its head loyally. "What? Grandma, you traitor!" Taichi squeaked, a hurt expression on his face. The blonde meister's blue eyes flashed angrily and set his worn sneakers in the earth, knuckles tightening over the handle on the katar, the weapon glinting menacingly. Taichi went at the child-like enemy, lunging sloppily, but with perfect accuracy. He tripped in his haste, but caught himself, using the accidental forward motion to become level with his opponent's height, shoving his weapon into the black formation's stomach. Taichi's hand went through the creature, crimson blood vivid against the wheat color of the dead grass, and draping like film over the silky skin of the small soldier. With the stab, the formation of the creature disintegrated into numerous crows, their glossy black feathers fanning over the brown ground. Crona gasped as the pigeon that had accompanied Taichi was grasped by a large hand, one of an old man, it wasn't brittle, but meaty and thick, the dry skin almost blending with the pigeon's colors. His piercing bloodshot eyes were a crazed pale, a white milky film where the irises were supposed to be, the hollow feel of a blind man's eyes settled on Crona. She cowered slightly from how intense his direction of vision was even with his incapacity to be able to see. The man's gray hair reached his mid-back, wrinkles rolled at his meaty face, he was hunched over, his back wasn't good, so that his height was to Taichi's stomach, whom was about an inch or two taller than Crona. The old man chuckled a dry laugh, a wheezing coming from his throat involuntarily, the pigeon in his fist squawked, it head looking around enthusiastically, as if enjoying itself with what its owner was laughing at. The man let go of the pigeon, and it faithfully nestled upon his head. Crona felt the pigeon gazing at her intensely, and the old man pointed to her and Taichi, even though his eyes were set somewhere in the distance nowhere, "You two are here to kill me." He said this with an amused smile on his face, weary face stretched out happily, "But I won't let you. Nope, nope." Taichi's eyes flashed, "You've killed people, we have to, whether you want us to or not." "Yes, but was it me that killed?" The man asked, "Or was it my crows?" Getting impatient, Taichi threw a swift fist at the old man, aiming Ryzo to rip apart the opponent's face. Surprisingly, the man dodged it quickly by stepping to the side, causing Taichi's eyes to widen in disbelief. "Ah, ah, ah." The man scolded playfully, "Thinking you can just treat your elderly like that." Crona got yelled at by an angered Ragnarok, he was exclaiming that if she didn't get her lazy butt moving, he was going to deprive her of sleep that night. The swordsman swung toward her enemy, but again he dodged the blow, and Crona was immediately swarmed with pecking crows. The girl held her arms over her head as the sharp beaks stabbed at her body, swinging Ragnarok in a swift motion to slice through the attacking birds. The cried out painfully as they fell, gracefully plopping lifeless on the rough ground. The old man grimaced painfully and clutched at his stomach, grunting at the loss of his pets. With a set look, the elderly called out and ten other small soldier like creatures (which Taichi and Crona now knew were composed of birds) came out from the depths of the dead grass of the field, surrounding Taichi, he smiled sadistically as he tore through the bodies, enthusiastically ripping out the inside to wrap around the throats of the others to pull and strangle them. In doing this, blood spotted across the boy, making Taichi's innocent face look demonic with his evil grinning.

Crona went at the old man, tumbling over a dead crow and bumping into him instead. The pigeon perched atop his head fell and flapped to keep itself up. The man panicked and started to wheeze, catching Taichi's attention, stopping from his bloodbath of fight.

"Grandma is his vision." Taichi stated as he gutted the last of his victims.

Lying on the ground, Crona quickly jerked up her sword, sending the blade vertically up through his pelvis into the rest of his body, immediately killing off the man. A red soul appeared, bobbing in the air above Crona where the body used to be.

Taichi reached over to grab the pigeon flapping in the air by its torso with the hand that didn't have Ryzo, keeping it from flying away. His blue eyes were stony, with a droop of ruefulness set in them, "Sorry, Grandma."

With a swift motion, Taichi snapped the bird neck, wincing at the last painful chirp that left its beak. Crona watched as the body fluttered to the ground in a soft heap.

Ryzo appeared in the reflection of the katar, "I'm feeling that we're done here."

Taichi gave a solemn nod as Ryzo transformed back into his human self, and looked down at Crona, who was staring fearfully at the dead pigeon. Smearing the blood on his face across his cheek in attempt to clean it, Taichi held out his hand to help Crona up from the ground. Crona took the offer, making Taichi smile happily, brightening his expression drastically, even with the blood still dotted across his face.

When the swordsman got up, Ragnarok hanging limply from her hand, she was had an enthusiastic Taichi swing his arm around her shoulders, "We killed him! Well, you did anyways- now we can go home!"

Ragnarok came out from Crona's back, the sword not in her hand anymore, "HEY! GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY MEISTER!"

The blonde beside him pouted, "But Raggy~…"

The black blob stuck out his tongue toward the katar technician, "Come on, I wanna go home, I'm hungry~!"

"You can have the Kishin egg soul." Ryzo insisted.

Crona looked toward the weapon, "You're going to let us have it?"

Taichi grinned, "Of course, you're the one who killed him! Besides, Maka told me that the last mission you went on, you couldn't get any souls because they were poisonous or something, so you deserve to have it!"

The shy swordsman gave a grateful smile, "Thank you."

…

"Crona, you're back!" Maka exclaimed happily, the blonde had seen her friend walking to go back to Shibusen on the streets and ran up to hug her.

"Um… H-hi, Maka." the swordsman greeted sheepishly.

Maka's emerald eyes were happy, "That was kind of fast, usually mission's take longer for Soul and me, though it may be because Soul always wants to take his motorcycle the whole way. He says he's paranoid that someone's going to steal it."

Crona tilted her head, "Why?"

"Well," Maka explained, "About two or three weeks ago, Soul's bike was stolen, we were at the bookstore because I bugged him into it, and when we came out it was gone."

"Oh, that's sad." Crona replied.

Maka snorted, "Yeah. We had to walk home, and Soul was grumbling the whole way that it was _my_ fault because I wanted the next book to a series I like. The next morning though, it was in the driveway outside out apartment, the keys were in the ignition too. That idiot left the keys and while we were in the bookstore and so someone took it! At least they gave it back, nothing was damaged."

"T-that's really nice…" Crona mumbled guiltily. (A/N: Points for those who get it.)

Maka finally looked up at Taichi, of whom was behind Crona the whole time, and greeted reluctantly, "Welcome back, Ryzo… and Taichi, too."

Taichi grinned and hooked and arm around Ryzo's neck, giving a happy thumbs up to Maka, "Thanks!"

The boy pranced off with his partner, saying that they should probably get more groceries because they were running low. Ryzo sighed and went off with his over-energetic meister to go grocery shopping, stating that this time, maybe Taichi should cut back from getting too much sugar.

Maka watched the boys leave, then turned back toward Crona, she studied the swordsman, "Did Taichi do anything funny?"

"What do you mean?" Crona asked.

"It's just that I've been on a mission with him before, and he get's kind of scary." Maka explained.

"H-how so?" Crona asked.

Maka looked around to make sure Taichi wouldn't overhear, "Well, he gets a dark feel around when it comes the time to kill something, his eyes get really serious."

Crona recalled that aura from the male blonde, and his eyes had been more strict, like a murderous Ryzo.

"Even when it's just one enemy he'll get so into and tear them up like he was enjoying it." Maka mumbled.

It was true that Taichi had been grinning sadistically while gutting out the small enemies during the mission, Crona could still see the blood spraying across his hands as he enthusiastically killed his victims. Crona shivered slightly, it was beginning to get cold, but imagining Taichi as something evil uneased her.

"I'm going back to my room, okay, Maka-chan." Crona told the blonde.

Maka smiled and waved good-bye to friend, "Okay, Crona, see you tomorrow."

The swordsman walked back in the direction she had been going before Maka had brought her into the hug to welcome her back. It was already around eight o' clock, so it was getting pretty dark, and Crona didn't want to relive the last time she had been alone at night.

Shibusen came into sight and Crona looked up at the large building, her size compared to it was that of an acorn next to a pine tree, completely overshadowed by its power and eyes wide with wonder at how she was lucky to have a home in a place like it. The timid swordsman entered the school and made her way down the halls to her undergrounds chamber, entering the room gratefully, retreating to her comforting corner.

"Geko."

Looking up at the up to the window, Crona's eyes brighten up, "Eruka?"

"Don't forget me."

On the windowsill were two frogs, one with the familiar dots on the edges of the mouth, and the other that was slightly taller, an unfamiliar one, but the voice it had was completely recognizable.

"Lily?"

The frogs plopped onto the bed that was scooted farther from the window than they were used to jumping, but managing to land safely on the center of the bed. They both transformed back into their normal states, Lily looking around the room curiously, Eruka stretching out her arms tightly.

Crona looked at the door anxiously, "What if Sid comes again?"

Lily cocked her head, "Sid?"

"Well, last time I came here, a man came down to check on Crona." Eruka explained.

Lily frowned, "Mmn, that's not very good."

With a sigh, Crona looked at the door she had just come through, "Yeah, I hope he doesn't come this time."

…

Shinigami was watching a new weapon and meister pairing on their first mission through his mirror as he hummed a playful tune. Curiously, Shinigami looked towards the meter that was now plastered against the side edge of his mirror, surprise taking him. The meter was usually at forty seven lately, but it was hiked up to a seventy seven.

The shinigami was going to call out for Sid but the door came bursting open. His son was red faced as if he had run the entire way, with a questioning expression on his mask, Shinigami tilted his head, hoping in the back of his mind that he could get rid of Kid quickly.

"Son? May I ask why you are so red faced?"

Death the Kid gasped, raising a finger to indicate he needed to catch his breath, "F…Father… Bl-Black….Star…"

"Son, I think you have the wrong room if you're looking for BlackStar." Shinigami rushed, "Now if you could excuse me."

The symmetry obsessed boy gasped, "No… he… broke another one of the pillars on the school…."

"Kid-kun, please, I have to-"

"Father! The symmetry is far more important!" Kid exclaimed.

"Fine! Get the tools out from the trunk behind the mirror!"

"But Father, you have the key."

"Here!"

Shinigami reached into his cloak and yanked out the key, throwing it to Kid. Death the Kid looked at it with fascination.

His gold eyes lit up, "Father, this key is absolutely symmetrical… You must have one made for me!"

"Son, please, I need to-"

"Alright, Father, do what you must, all I need are the tools."

"Thank you." Shinigami sighed in relief, patience leaking from him, "Sid!"

The blue man appeared in the doorway, "Yes, sir?"

Shinigami gave his orders quickly, "Please check in on cell 27, if you know to what I'm referring to."

The zombie saluted, "Yes, I understand sir, I'll go now."

Death the Kid watched the former teacher leave and looked toward his father, "Why is he going there?"

His father didn't look at him "Ah, nothing important."

Shinigami looked toward the meter that was plastered on the side of his mirror, grateful that his son's keen eyes hadn't spotted it yet. It was wavering, making him glare in concentration, finally, after a few minutes, it stayed back down at forty seven.

'Damn,' Shinigami thought, 'What was going on in there? I wonder if Sid was able to find out…'

Death the Kid forgot about what he had originally came to his father for, thoughts rolling through his head. Why would his father send for Sid to check in on Crona?

"Kid-kun, are you going to get the tools?"

"Oh," Kid was pulled from his pondering, "Yes, father."

…

"So, why is it that you came to visit me?" Crona asked curiously.

Lily smiled, "To enjoy your company of course, we thought that we'd come and spend time with you!"

"And we have some recent news for you." Eruka threw in with a sly grin.

Crona blinked, "W-what's the news?"

"Well," Eruka began, "Since today was Ishi's baby's due date, we brought in Sayuri Hazuki and her daughter, you remember them right?"

Crona remembered Medusa saying their names before and nodded, they were popular among the witches as one of the best doctors next to Medusa. They were very experienced in the medical field, so they were depended on to help the witch mass.

Lily continued on for her sister, "So we brought Sayuri over to Ishi's to see if she could deliver the baby… well, it turns out that she's not going to be having it anytime soon."

Crona's curiosity sparked, "What do you mean?"

"See, Ishi is a pureblooded witch, and since she mated with a human it kind of altered her birthing schedule." Eruka explained.

"So when will the baby arrive?" Crona asked.

"Since the genes were kind of mixed up with the baby, she's kind of going to be half and half." Lily said, "So she will be part human part witch."

"She was devastated when she found out," Eruka giggled, "Groaning about how miserable she'll be for the next few months."

"Do you know the birth date?" Crona prodded.

Lily thought about it, "It will be somewhere near August."

Eruka sighed, "We hope that it'll go by easily since Ishi's going to so emotional now."

Lily laughed, but then her head shot up and stared icily at the door, "Someone's coming."

Crona's eyes widened, "Leave before they get here!"

The Frogg sisters quickly hugged the swordsman good-bye, and quickly dashed out the window, waving their farewells. Once they were gone, Crona bit on her lips nervously, wishing Ishi good luck. Her thoughts were interrupted by the formal knock on her door.

"Come in…"

The familiar blue zombie popped his head in through the door, "Is there anyone else here?"

The swordsman shook her head in denial, "No."

Sid sighed and scratched his head, "Okay."

He left quickly, his dragging steps heard in the echoing of the stone hallway, going to report his disappointing finding once again to Shinigami. Crona curled tighter into her ball, snuggling her face into the fabric of her dress.

…

Death the Kid stared at the sunset that was filtering beautifully in the sky, the purple cast darkening the sky. He had finished fixing the pillar that BlackStar had broken, and stopped to see the beauty of the drooling sun lower into the horizon. He rested his cheek on his fist, golden eyes drooping sleepily.

He thought of why Sid was ordered to check on Crona, and remembering this, wondered how the swordsman was doing. The girl had finally grown into his life involuntarily, and Kid couldn't stop that damned feeling at butterflies in his stomach when he thought of her. Maybe, he thought, once February came around, he could ask her to the annual Valentine's dance.

…...

**A/N: Done with this chapter finally! So, so , so , so sorry it took me forever ;A;**

**Please review~! I'll get going on the next chapter right now!**

(1) If you want to see what a katar is like, here's a link to a video. Youtube .com/watch?v=VGciJpNlgWY


	19. February

A/N: I'm... AAAALLLIIIIVVVV

Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater. I just own my Ocs.

Chapter 19:

February (Yayz Big Time skip)

A month had passed and Crona was up to twelve souls, thanks to the help of Maka, Soul, Taichi, and Ryzo. She was grateful for their generosity and encouragement when she went on missions alone, especially for Maka who always gave her motion sickness pills for the plane rides-let God bless her for that. Lately the walls in the hall and lockers were plastered with colorful flyers about the upcoming dance on the fourteenth, informing the students on the time it was to start and that formal where was required.

Maka was telling Crona that she hoped Soul would ask her to it, even though she seemed depressed because she felt that Soul would never want to go to such an 'uncool event that losers do because they want to seem romantic to try to repair their severed relationship.'

"You really like Soul-kun don't you Maka?" Crona asked her blonde friend.

Maka's emerald eyes slid over to her friend, cheeks red, "Yeah." She put a finger to her lips with a beam, "But don't tell him, 'kay?"

Crona gave a responding smile and gave a hearty bob, "Okay, Maka, I promise."

Giving a thumbs up, the scythe meister gathered her things up and pulled her bag up on her shoulder, "Come on, Crona, let's go. When you're the last in the classroom, Stein makes you clean."

School had ended for the day and students were filtering out through the door, chatting happily with each other, girls giggling as they looked at the Valentine's dance flyers and secretly pointed to boys behind their backs, blushing with their whispers. Crona didn't know what all of it was about or what it was for, but she figured it was just another thing that Medusa didn't bother to tell her about because it wasn't important. Everyone seemed excited about it though, so Crona didn't want to interfere by asking them. Besides, she was too embarrassed to ask anyone because she knew they would be shocked she didn't know.

Crona turned to Maka, curiosity pulling at her wanting to know what this 'Valentine's Day' was, "Hey, Maka?"

"Yeah?"

"What's-"

"My god! Why won't that old man leave me alone?"

Both girls turned around to the unexpected exclamation behind them, seeing the familiar red-eyed scythe walking toward them, an exasperated expression on his face. He was heading toward them, looking behind his shoulder every few feet or so, and finally caught sight of the girls. Maka immediately flushed form her recent conversation with Crona and kept her head to the front so that her weapon wouldn't see the splotches of red across her cheeks.

"W-what's wrong, Soul-kun?" Crona asked, wondering what he had been trying to escape from.

Soul sighed as he ran a hand through his white hair, "Maka's creepy dad keeps following me around, telling me to 'stay away from his daughter.' I told him not to worry though, if Maka and I weren't partners and didn't live together they're would be no way I'd hang around her."

Maka snapped her head in her partner's direction, glaring with fire burning in her emerald eyes, cheeks flaming with anger instead of embarrassment, "Maka…"

Predicting his fate, Soul tried to make a quick getaway, but ultimately failed, sprawled across the ground with blood pooling by his head. Crona blinked as Maka put her book back wherever she put it, an angry pout on her face.

"Stupid Soul." she mumbled.

Maka looked back at her friend, "What is it that you wanted to ask Crona?"

Crona blinked, "Nothing important, don't worry about. I'm going to get started on the report Stein told us to do today."

The scythe meister cocked her head, "Okay, see you later!"

As the swordsman turned away to head off to the library, she saw the glimpse of Maka beginning to drag Soul's lifeless body across the hall, grumbling about how heavy he would be to get him all the way to the apartment. Crona smiled at Maka's kindness (after the violent actions) to helping Soul, and hoped that the scythe would ask Maka to the dance she wanted to go to so much with him.

Crona tried to remember the way to the library, since the last time she had been uncertain of where to go, she had made the mistake of asking Ms. Marie Mjolnir to guide her to the wanted destination. Turning her head to look down hallways, Crona tried to use her sense of direction to find out where to go, hoping that she wouldn't get lost. So, biting on the edge of her thumb in thought, the swordsman tried to rely on her gut to lead her, choosing with a guess to keep heading straight through the hall that gradually curved to the left.

While walking, Crona accidentally bumped into someone, making them drop some books and papers. Immediately, Crona started to apologize frantically, practically hyperventilated as her tripped over her words in panic. Before the girl was able to faint to the ground from the lack of air, the one she bumped into laughed.

Looking up, the swordsman recognized the one as Taichi, the male blonde grinning, "It's fine."

"Sorry, I was going to the library." Crona apologized.

"I just got done there." Taichi told her, gesturing to the books he had picked up and where now in his arms.

With a nod, Crona said, "I'm going to go get started on the report Stein assigned us today."

As the swordsman started to leave, Taichi stopped her, "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"U-um, what is it?"

"Wanna come to the Valentine's dance with me?"

The swordsman blinked, "Uh… um…"

She wasn't sure what to answer since she did not, in fact, know what the reason was for the dance. Crona, uncomfortable with Taichi's wide pleading eyes, wasn't sure how to reject him, even if he wasn't wearing his puppy-dog eyed expression.

"O-okay…" Crona answered pitifully.

The male blonde seemed to jump in the air, "Awesome! Oh crap, I've gotta go. Bye!"

Taichi sped from the swordsman, gone from her sight in the matter of seconds before she could react. It was possibly one of the most weird and quickly gone by conversations she had ever had.

Frowning a bit, Crona was confused over what to do, she had never been to a dance before (didn't know how to dance either) other then the time she had invaded the Christmas Eve dance for the founding of Shibusen. Well, that didn't count, at all, she hadn't even seen the ballroom, only snuck into the lower bowels in the school where the Kishin Asura was held. So saying that she _had_ in fact gone to a dance before was a large stretch that Crona didn't think could be made.

Finally, the swordsman continued making her way to where she thought the library was, and seeing that she had run into Taichi coming this direction, as he had just gone to her destination, was a good sign signaling that she was probably going the right way.

Crona's footsteps were lonely in the hall, as it was after hours and only a small handful of students stay behind to go to the library, talk to some teachers, and help with things. The black book bag bumped against her waist with each step she took with her right leg, as the bag was resting on the thigh of that limb, the sway of her dominant hips making it beat rhythmically.


	20. Dresses

**A/N: Pretty much filler. Just skip it if you want to, and save a few precious minutes of your life not reading it. There's a short summary at the end, an entire two sentences that explains absolutely everything you need to know.**

**Responses to Reviews:**

**Nicolegreen8: Yeah, I finally updated. I've just been being very lazy lately... the next chapter is a bit longer- I think... =/**

**b4k4 ch4n: ^^; Heh-heh-heh, sorry for the sudden change, but I was tired of writing about *:o* Death the Kid. Sorry about the gramatical mistakes, I'll try to catch them. **

…

Chapter 20:

Dresses

"W-wait, what?"

Crona's beam turned into an expression of confusion, "Sh-shiniga- I mean- Kid-kun, w-what's wrong? Y-you look pale."

Death the Kid thought about the situation, _'There's nothing I can do about it, I'd might as well go along_.'

"Nothing's wrong." the shinigami answered, "Sure, let's all go together. Could you tell Taichi for me?"

Crona beamed, happy that the shinigami was cooperating, "Sure!"

Death the Kid watched as Crona left, gathering the books that he had collected for her, smiling inwardly when she thanked him for his help and glad that he was going to come with her and Taichi to the dance, and sighed when the large library doors shut behind her while she was still turned to him, waving good-bye to him.

The shinigami clenched his hand and pounded it on the table, the loud sound echoing through the large and empty room, grateful that at present it was empty and that the walls were sound proof so nobody else would be able to hear his frustration.

Damn that overly happy boy, was the thought process that was rolling through Kid's mind, the one time he actually accepted his damned shinigami mating, Taichi had to ruin it. Now when he went along, any attempt to get close to his so called 'soul mate' would be crushed.

…...

Crona was sitting on her bed, shoes placed on the floor at the foot of the bed, holding her pillow to her chest, staring at the spider books in front of her wearily. The swordsman reluctantly opens them, taking out a sheet of paper and began to take notes on the cursed bug that she despised. Taichi had actually been very happy that Death the Kid was coming along.

…...

Maka sat at the small table that was set in the middle of the living room of Tsubaki and Black Star's apartment, watching chain scythe working in the kitchen, making tea. Soul was playing basketball with Black Star and both girls were lacking of something to do, so Maka had visited her friend. Tsubaki set the tea leaves into the cups, she set them on the coasters on the low to the ground table, instructing Maka to let it sit so that the flavor could spread. Tsubaki sighed as she told the meister in front of her about her odd urge to play BlackStar's video games, stating that she was interested in them. Maka grinned as she asked what was in the game and Tsubaki answered that is had violence in it.

Maka smirked, "Are you sure it doesn't have anything… _naughty_ in it?"

The chain scythe blushed ferociously as she mumbled, "N-no…"

Maka knew about her friend's perverted mind, and made sure that the girl didn't forget it, because sometimes Maka just wanted to teasingly be mean. the blonde laughed and apologized.

"I'm sorry, Tsubaki-chan. I couldn't help asking." Maka gave a sheepish smile.

Accepting her apology, both girls shrug it off and begin talking about the dance, wondering if they should get dresses or not.

"We could use the dresses we used for the winter dance." Maka suggested, "But those were more elegant and wintery than Valentine themed. And I accidentally ripped mine because of Medusa's invasion."

Tsubaki smiled, "Well, they were only for the celebration for the founding of Shibusen. I already got my dress though."

"I can't wait to see it." Maka replied, "I think I'll go with Liz and Patty, they'll take whatever the reason to get a new outfit."

"Like the time Liz said she needed to buy a new outfit for President's day last year?" Tsubaki asked.

"Exactly."

Maka decided that she was going to ask Liz and Patty to help her find a dress, since they would absolutely agree, the sisters were wonderful at helping with critic and finding something that suited her (plus, they always got Kid to lend them his unlimited credit card ;D).

Maka suddenly perked up, "Hey, Tsubaki? Do you think I should bring Crona along?"

The assassin weapon blinked, "Well... If she wants to. I'm positive if she comes along Liz will end up forcing her to get a dress and come to the dance. She'll probably try to dry her up in other things, too."

Maka nodded slowly, "Yeah… That's something Liz would do, but then Crona would be able to experience something! Dress shopping _and _the dance."

Tsubaki thought about it for a moment, "… I suppose. And Liz had been dying to get Crona into something other than her regular dress."

Maka smiled, "See? It'll work out."

Tsubaki returned the friendly expression as she took a sip of her ready tea, "Yeah."

…...

Crona heard a knock at her door, and, moving her eyes away from the paragraph she was jotting notes from, saw the thick slab of steel open to reveal the familiar blond scythe meister that was on the other side. Immediately, the swordsman perked up at seeing her friend, a happy smile lighting up her face.

"Maka!"

Said girl beamed, "Hey, Crona! Say, do you want to come with me and the other girls to go dress shopping?"

"Dress shopping?" Crona cocked her head at the activity.

"Yeah, we're going to get some dressed for the Valentine's dance."

"Oh, o-okay."

Maka smiled reassuringly, "You don't have to get anything, but we want you to come along. Be wary of Liz though, she'll try to make _sure_ that you leave with something."

The swordsman nodded, "I'll come."

…

"Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Patty was prancing through the store, earning several glares from the other shoppers and the employees. Liz and Maka were flipping through the racks of the countless dresses that were rowed in long strips from the entrance door to the back wall. Crona stood back watching Patty dance to the music playing from the store's ceiling speakers and the other two girls taking dresses from the racks, stacking them in their arms to try on later and decide what was good and what was not.

The swordsman looked around the store, letting herself take in the surrounding area, the deep violet walls and the colorful designs swirled across them. Other girls that Crona didn't recognize were scattered throughout the store, probably looking for dresses for the Valentine's dance too, since the other schools in the other the large city of Death City were definitely holding dances for the commercialized holiday.

After several long minutes of gathering hundreds of dresses piled in their hands so high, Crona couldn't even see their faces, Liz and Maka decided they should try on the things they had gotten so they could reject enough so that they could get even more materials of clothing.

The teenagers made their way to the four dressing rooms lined against the back wall, violet doors with plaques advertising the store's name. None of the dressing rooms were occupied so it was a great for the teenagers to steal them away.

Liz was out of sight within the time span of a blink once she had her possibility dresses within her grasp, disappearing into the midst of one of the dressing rooms. Maka rolled her eyes at the energy of the older demon pistol.

Maka turned to Crona, "Liz always looks like a little kid in a toy shop whenever we go shopping, it's the time when you really see the similarities between her and Patty. They both can get so hyper."

The swordsman gave a soft chuckle, seeing Liz so buoyant was indeed a sight she hadn't seen before, the older Thompson sister was usually calm and mellow-except when the subject came to the paranormal-it was interesting to see her so excited.

Suddenly, Liz came prancing out from the barrier of the dressing room and twirled in her new attire, the tag that was attached to the zipper on the back swirling with her. The gown was a bright hot peach color, like the vivid color of the inside of a budding flower, and reached to Liz's shins, showing off her strong tanned legs. The folds of the dress elegantly fanned out whenever the sister struck a pose, modeling for the other girls to comment on the piece of clothing. The straps were thin, but strong, holding tightly onto Liz's smooth lightly tanned shoulders, hugging her chest and shelving her nice cleavage for all of the perverted boys she was bound to come by.

Maka's eyes widened, applauding the best she could with the rest of the dresses in her hand, "Wow, Liz you look great!"

Patty stopped spinning and took a glance toward her sister, "Whoa, onee-chan looks like a super model~!"

"It looks very pretty on you, Liz." Crona commented sheepishly.

Liz stroked the smooth surface of the dress, "I'm getting it. I don't even care about the other ones, this is just the right one for Valentine's."

"That's great!" Maka beamed, "That just means that we don't have to spend forever trying to find your dress."

"Yeah," Patty agreed, "Onee-chan takes forever to decide."

"Thanks…" Liz responded dully, going back into the dressing room to get into her original clothes and put back all of the other dresses.

Patty went in next, speeding into the dressing room that was beside her sister's, quickly grabbing her pile of 'maybe's as she passed by Maka, shutting the door behind her as she entered the small room. Almost a second later, the hyper blonde jumped out of the dressing room grinning.

The dress was almost the same shade of pink as the one her sister tried on, but the color was a light pink, like the sweet softness of a kitten's paw. The dress was shorter and reached a little above the knee, the color blending nicely into the pale pink of the young Thompson's skin, the fabric bouncing slightly when she walked, creating a child-like image. The straps were thicker, about an inch, and held nicely against her body, a small belt line lining around her flat torso, giving a more innocent look than if her large cleavage were to be sported proudly, dying for a comparison against her sister, which would ultimately devastate the elder.

Patty giggled, "I like it."

Liz hugged the young girl as she sobbed dramatically, "My little sister looks so beautiful!"

Maka laughed and Crona suggested that the blonde go next, "Maka should go next."

The scythe meister grinned as she headed to one of the rooms, "Sure."

Maka slipped inside of the dressing room and came out several minutes later, explaining how there were so many that she had to try on before she found one that she actually liked. Maka settled on a dress that was a nice yellow, it went well with the wheat color of her hair, and brought out her green eyes drastically. The dress was the same length as Patty's ending just above the knee, it hung loosely around her hips and slowly twisted up, the fabric tightening into a smooth path of circling folds, finally stopping underneath the breasts, topping off with a crumpled almost scrunchie-like chest with no straps. Like Patty, it gave off the impression that a small girl ran away from her birthday party.

Crona blinked, "Maka, you look really pretty."

The scythe meister laughed sheepishly, "You think so?"

Liz grinned, "Yep, totally fits you. Because the yellow is so soft, your hair is a kind of wheat color, and your skin is fair, it brings out your eyes like major-ly."

"Maybe I'll get it then," Maka responded, looking down at herself, wondering if she really looked as pretty as they made it out to be.

"You should, totally." Liz turned to Crona with an almost evil smirk on her face, "Now it's your turn, Crona."

The swordsman looked to the pistol, "W-wha-?"

Liz smiled, "If you don't get in there, I'll drag you inside with me."

Crona hurried off into the dressing room with a small squeak, getting away from the overly obsessed fashion queen. Closing the door hurriedly, letting out her breath, feeling oddly solitary in the small monotonously colored stall.

Setting the options that were available in her size on the small bench that was lined against the wall, Crona sorted through the ones that she liked, pushing aside the ones that she didn't think suited her tastes. The swordsman pulled out a single garment out from the imprisonment of the others, watching as the fabric seemed to flow out like a ribbon when she pulled on it.

Crona disrobed herself of her uniform black dress and slipped on the formal clothing over her head, smoothing it out over her body to even out the wrinkles. She turned at herself to the long mirror that stretched itself across the left wall of her stall, hesitantly forcing her eyes to look at herself, anxious about the outcome.

The swordsman was surprised by the fact that she thought she looked pretty decent in it, as she had thought that it wouldn't be possible for something to make her look pretty, having such a low self-esteem of herself. The dress, was a soft slate, pale enough to where one would argue that whether or not it was supposed to be a gray or a blue. It reached down to her calves, a bit shorter than her original dress, but tolerable, it hugged around her waist, pronouncing her dominant hips, giving her already nice legs a more elegant look.

On the upper torso, the dress was smooth, showing how flat Crona's stomach was, but not so much that it showed how unnaturally thin the swordsman was-though, the girl had gained a few more healthy pounds since entering Shibusen, as Maka made sure that she eat enough. At the chest, just below the breast line, the fabric was spread out more, covering up the fact that the wearer was flat enough to pass off as male. The neckline curved graceful right under Crona's collar bone, exposing her slender neck, and the sleeves went down to her elbows, letting her arms come to light.

The fabric was soft, nice and cool on the skin, it was slippery like silk, but Crona knew that such an expensive fabric wouldn't be in a small shop like this, but it didn't matter. The dress was nice on her figure and it didn't clash with her faded pink hair, the mellow hue blended nicely with the dull pink and gave the swordsman an image of quiet and gentle demeanor, exactly what was perfect.

Crona spotted a small deep blue sweater came along with the dress and slipped it on, it ended right below where the chest started and was long sleeved, it had an elegant gray button that attached the very middle of the sweater together. The button seemed to be made of a heavy metal and had the design of a rose amidst vines carved into it.

With a satisfied smile, the swordsman slipped out of the dressing room to present herself to the other girls.

…..

**To those who skipped, short summary. Kid's confused and somehow it's planned to where he has to go along with Taichi to escort Crona to the dance. **

**The girls get dresses.**

**\(^3^)/**


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